Warlock's Bazaar: The tale of the cursed bat
by Androidfish7
Summary: Another story from a friend of mine, these jock characters live in a place of the world, close to the U.S.A. which is neglected to be noticed ever. It is called Omiousorca. It is the center of the sports world for these people, who are a little unique.


**Warlock's Bazaar**

By,

Jeremy Stinson

**Chapters:**

Chapter 1: Introduction 3

Chapter 2: The Team 4

Chapter 3: First Game of the Season 7

Chapter 4: The Belly Shirted One 11

Chapter 5: Tiny Talks to me 12

Chapter 6: I Get Run Over by a Truck 13

Chapter 7: I Spend Some Time in the Hospital 15

Chapter 8: Apologies and Thank You 17

Chapter 9: Gang+Run Away=The Bat 20

Chapter 10: The Hospital Again 25

Chapter 11: I Hit my Homer 34

Chapter 12: Extermination 37

Chapter 13: Stages 39

Chapter 14: Metallic Infection 40

Chapter 15: Finding a Cure 41

Chapter 16: Execute Destruction for Cure 43

Chapter 17: Absolute and Temporary Awards 46

Chapter 18: Pure Game 47

**Chapter 1: Introduction**

A few things about my life you need to know before you read this story. First: my name is Adam Frost Dalabreak. Two: I am fourteen years old. Three: I am a boy, I have an average height, I'm mostly skinny with a little amount of fat, I have paleish white skin, my eye color is blue, I have silky brown hair that goes almost all the way down to my shoulders. Four: I have a sister, Resios Miara Dalabreak, who is seventeen years old, a father, Frost Dennis Dalabreak, and a mother, Miara Belle Dalabreak. Five: yes, I know we all have unusual names. Six: we live in a place of the world, close to the U.S.A. which is neglected to be noticed ever. It is called Omiousorca. It is about nineteen-twentieths the size of Florida. It is East of Florida and the reason no body ever notices it is because it was never fully claimed. Seven: this book's setting will start out in the beginning of summer, note it does not snow here. Eight: I love baseball. Nine: This book is not about school life; so don't expect me to talk about school life. I will talk about other life, though. Tenth: I play on the team: Space Meteor.

**Chapter: 2 The Team**

Here is my team:

**TEAM CHART: THE SPACE METEOR**

**Name Details**

**Gender**

**Name**

**Nickname**

**Reason for Nickname**

Boy

Adam Dalabreak

Atom

Hitting skills

Boy

Thomas Hawkinson

Hawk

last name and watches for the ball like a hawk

Boy

Jason Felveritz

Farmer

lives on a farm

Girl

Tayla Meadow

Potato

they put it together like this Po+tay (Tayla)-y+to=Potato

Girl

Vivian Umbriose

Vivi

Short for Vivian

Boy

Whither Coldstock

Winter

his first name starts with "W", his last name has cold in it, and he likes winter a lot

Girl

Jessica Sanópapya

Jessy

First name

Boy

John Holonan

Joey

I have no idea

Boy

Edward Numbergam

Ed

Obvious

Boy

Shawn Gammawalker

Gamma

Obvious

Boy

Manny Fairyshort

Tiny

His size and his last name

**Body Details**

**Nickname**

**Color of Eyes**

**Hair Color**

**Hair Details**

**Height**

**Body Build**

**Age (years)**

**American or African-American**

Atom

blue

brown

Long to the shoulders

average

Strong, mostly skinny

14

American

Hawk

Silvery brown

Dyed silver

Hair is a short spiky-mohawk (that is without the hat)

tall

Slender, skinny, flexible, but strong

15

American

Farmer

green

red

Short, almost a buzz cut

tall

Very strong, huge, very muscular

18

African-American

Potato

Hazel

Auburn

Longish, hair usually in a ponytail to the back

average

average

14

African-American

Vivi

blue

Dyed neon yellow

Goes down to the shoulders, usually in two ponytails

tallish

Strongish, kind of a tomboy, but skinny

16

American

Winter

blue

Dark black

short slick

tall

Strong with a little fat

16

American

Jessy

brown

blonde

Short and strait

shortish

average

16

African-American

Joey

hazel

brown

Short basic

short

average

16

American

Ed

brown

Greenish brown

Short, three dreadlocks on back

tallish

Fatlike but strong

17

African-American

Gamma

hazel

blonde

short

tall

muscular

17

American

Tiny

hazel

brown

Short (only teammate that wears glasses)

Short (shortest teammate)

skinny, appears weak, but not (literally, I've seen him, he knows kung fu, karate, and I've seen him break a punching bag {big heavy one}, harshly)

13

American

**Baseball Details**

**Nickname**

**Favorite Bat**

**Skills**

**Things Bad At**

**Positions (usual)**

**Number on Back of Tee**

Atom

RAZZOR –10

Very fast, good at catching, pitching

hitting

Pitcher, short-stop, first base

37

Hawk

HAWKS –8

great catching, great dives, gets a lot of doubles, runs pretty well, THROWS REALLY FAR

can't pitch without giving walks balls, or a hit on the batter that results to automatic walk

Any outfield position

7

Farmer

WOODS –12

very strong, hits well, average catching and throwing

Runs a little slow

Catcher third and second base

24

Potato

P!NK –8

good pitcher, runs well, catches and hits average

can't play outfield because she can't throw that far

pitcher, short-stop

11

Vivi

THOMPS –10

catches just about anything, hits pretty well, throws and runs average

No pitching skills

catcher, left field

14

Winter

ICE BALL –9

throws well, catches well, runs well, hits great

Pitches are terrible

right field, second base, first base

10

Jessy

RUBY –10

catches well, throws well, hits well

Pitching and runs slow

centerfield, third base

28

Joey

BRICKS –7

can run well, throws average, hits good

pitching and catching

third base

52

Ed

BRICKS –11

catches good, throws good, hits well, pitches well

running

pitcher, catcher, first base

23

Gamma

EASTON –12

throws far, runs well, catches well, hits great

pitching

second base, any outfield position

4

Tiny

EASTON –7

runs very fast, catches good, hits good

pitching, can't throw too far

anything but pitcher

1

Well, now you get it. I'm friends with Hawk. He's been my buddy since kindergarten. Oh, we're still the same age group, the reason I'm fourteen is because my birthday is November 1, and his is March 29. Oh, also; Hawk's dad is the assistant coach.

By the way everyone on my team bats righty and throws righty except Tiny.

**Chapter 3: First Game of the Season**

My dad and me are always the first to the game. I'm pretty smart by the way, I'm not a dufus, I usually get B+'s and A-'s, but I'm definitely not the smartest guy/girl on the team, that is would be Tiny. Next Hawk and his dad are always second. Then everyone else's arrivals are scattered times.

A few minutes after our arrival Hawk and his dad arrived. We set up the field, a few days of practice were making us all agitated for our first game. Hawk and his dad practiced some flyers. My dad played catcher to practice my pitching. Farmer and Potato arrived a while later.

Today we were the home team, the game was in the afternoon. The entire visiting team's players showed up before all our players arrived.

I looked and noticed the opposing team was the: SCARRED BOBCATS. Their outfits had pictures of bobcats with black scars across their faces. We are not allowed mascots in the games.

When everyone arrived the scoreboard roared to life. The snack stand opened, and our commentary guy, Nick, a young guy probably in his twenties with nice blonde hair, started speaking into the commentary microphone.

"Hello sports fans." Nick said. Nick liked to wear sandals. He was like a mix of beach boy and baseball dude.

I looked and saw the fans' benches full, my family was in them too.

"Today we have the home team, the SPACE METEORS (our fans cheered), vs. the visiting team, the SCARRED BOBCATS. (Their fans cheered)" Nick boomed. "You have five more minutes to practice, both of you."

We practice for the next five minutes pretty well.

"Alright take to your dug-outs please. Coaches and assistance coaches, shake hands" Hawk's dad and my dad shook hands enthusiastically.

My dad came back, luckily he knew our nicknames. I saw the line-up. In our baseball rules; we have only the people in can bat. Here was the line-up.

Centerfield-1. Hawk

Third Base-2. Farmer

Shortstop-3. Atom

Second Base-4. Winter

Pitcher-5. Potato

Leftfield-6. Gamma

Catcher-7. Vivi

First Base-8. Ed

Rightfield-9. Tiny

I looked it over twice and then smiled.

"Alright the umpire is here and I want the home team on the field, now."

"Alright everyone," my dad shouted, "Atom your going to short-stop, Hawk your going to right field…" He continued to tell everyone positions. I picked up my glove and walked over to shortstop position.

We passed the ball around and I watched Potato practice pitching. She's also known for her, "Potato Pitch." A ball that goes fast at you, but then seems to slow down and then speed up a few inches from the plate. I'm the only one on my team that can throw a knuckle ball.

"Play-ball, and batter-up!" the umpire shouted.

"Alright let's go." I heard Potato say. A tall kid came to the plate.

My eyes shut when a gleam off of someone in the stands hitting me in the eyes. It was a girl from my school, she was in my grade. I forgot her name, but she has blonde hair, long, strait, and she has blue eyes, and paleish skin. I know that only in school: she wears a jacket (the difference between a jacket and a coat is a coat is for winter and a jacket is like a sweatshirt with a zipper and it isn't as thick and heavy) on. Once she gets out of school, for some unfathomable reason, she takes the jacket off and she's wearing a belly shirt and she puts shorts on. I sort of thought that it was because her parent's made her, or that she was stuck up, or something else like that. Outside of school; I never saw her with a normal shirt on, only a belly shirt. I never understood exactly why. Ping!

"Atom!" my dad shouted. I notice the ball was up in a fly right for me. I rolled backwards, jumped and caught the ball, then landed on my butt. I threw the ball to Potato and got up.

"Two outs!" the umpire shouted.

"What, really, wow that went by fast. Well what do you expect from Adam Dalabreak." Nick said on the microphone.

I watched as Potato threw a curveball, too low, ball. We're allowed to steal, but no leading. She threw another curveball, just right above the ball line, strike. She threw it…bang! A line drive to right field.

Tiny ran and jumped…he was too short he couldn't reach it. It fell, bounced, and was called a ground-rule fence double.

Potato waited for the next batter, once he was up she threw it and strike. She winded up again. This time a slowball…ball. She winded up pitched again, and got a ball. Potato sighed. She caught the ball, winded up and threw a change-up.

"Strike!" the umpire shouted. We have nine innings, even though a lot of other clubs have six.

Potato looked at Vivi. She took awhile trying to decide what to throw. When she did decide Vivi nodded. Potato winded up, oh I saw her, she winded up just a tiny several inches different. She let the ball go, her famous "Potato Pitch." I watched as in a few seconds it slowed down…then speed up. The batter swung.

"Tres, oo, doo, toe." The umpire shouted which meant, "Strike three, your out."

Nick smiled at me, "And that ends half the inning there folks." I took a quick look at the stands, yah, she's still there. I thought for a second. She was sitting on the: SPACE METEOR's side.

Hawk got his bat and helmet and went over practice his swing. Farmer did the same, only standing in the: ON DECK box.

"Up to bat first for the SPACE METEORS is Thomas Hawkinson. To pitch first for the…" Nick went on. I study pitchers, that's what I do. He was tall, his pitches were mostly fastballs, slow balls, or change-ups.

"Batter up!" the umpire shouted.

"Good luck, Hawk!" I shouted. He smiled at me.

The first two pitches were too obviously balls, and Hawk had good sight. Somehow he did not have any eye problems. He had the sight of a Hawk. The third was a change-up right down the middle. A big ripe apple waiting to be picked. Clang! A deep one to left field. Hawk ran to first bas and quickly to second. The ball reached shortstop. Hawk ran and slid. Then the ball reached the third baseman.

"Oi!" the umpire shouted, which meant , "Safe!" You can tell that he has a weird language, but our team has gotten used to it. We even understand it.

I got set and stepped into the box. Farmer was batting now. The first ball that was pitched, a fastball, he hit. It grounded over; near the second baseman. Hawk was at home plate already. Farmer was almost out a first, but was safe.

"That's a score for SPACE METEORS!" Nick shouted. I saw the scoreboard have the "HOME" score change from a "0" to a "1".

"Batter-up!" the umpire called. I waited for a batter to go up.

"Atom!" Farmer shouted.

I stared for a second then realizing I was up, "Oh." I walked over and set up. I saw out of the corner of my eye Winter ready to go up next.

The batter pitched the ball, a one low but hitable, I swung.

"Huh!" the umpire yelled. That meant, "Strike one!"

Another one, I didn't swing.

"Ball one!" the umpire shouted.

The next two were balls. I saw my dad give me the fake bunt sign and give Farmer the steal sign. I smiled for a second, I was good at fake bunts. Then I stopped smiling how could Farmer make it, he couldn't run fast, he was strong, but his speed was only half his strength.

The next pitch I did it anyway. Farmer took off. The catcher threw it at second.

"Oi!" the umpire yelled. Somehow Farmer made it.

The next one was so tempting to hit but it wasn't where it was supposed to be.

"Ball quarto! Take your base." the umpire screamed. I sighed walking to first.

Winter walked up. I had hope that I could finally score. The pitch was delivered…crack! A deep one to center field. I ran as fast as I could gaining on Farmer.

My hope of scoring died when Nick said, "Oh look, the center fielder caught it."

I ran back to second, too late, out. Farmer ran to third making it.

"Double play!" shouted Nick.

Potato was up now. The pitcher sighed. He winded up. Threw it…strike! The inning ended when Potato struck out.

Nick concluded it with a big, "Well that ends the first inning, 1-0."

We all ran to our positions, which still were the same.

I suddenly noticed that girl in the stands was watching me.

"Atom!" I heard Winter shout at me. He had thrown the ball at me I ducked looked at Hawk's dad telling me to throw it in. I threw it in. "What's wrong with you today man." he said with his arms open.

"Yeah, mon. I no'iced it too." Farmer said to me. "An' I ain't talkin' abou' yer hittin'." he sighed.

"Sorry, I really don't know." I said back sighing.

"Batter-up." the umpire yelled.

A big tall guy taking a lefty batter's stance, who looked like he actually might be as tall as Farmer, but not as muscular, stepped up.

"Oh, back it up people, it is me ol' frien' fro' high school!" Farmer shouted, and we all backed up.

Potato heard him and pitched a curveball, low and away…ball. Potato pitched a change-up, high and near…ball. Potato pitched a fastball in the middle…the big guy swung.

"Strike one!" the umpire shouted.

Vivi shouted, "Run a low one right here." Shoving her glove right on a space low but near him.

"Okay!" Potato answered nodding. She winded up and let loose another "Potato Pitch." He swung. I didn't hear or see it, but it went flying upwards because I looked behind me seeing it going into leftfield. I ran back. Gamma was running to catch it. I stopped when I saw it go over the fence.

"Home run!" the umpire shouted. I walked back to short-stop, watching the scoreboard show: 1-1. Nick was eating a corn dog.

"Howy smoes, a hoe ru. I ekekekek, huff. Man I almost choked on a corn dog. Score plus one for the SCARRED BOBCATS." Nick said on the microphone.

The next batter went up and struck out and the next one grounded out.

Nick said, "Well that ends half the second inning."

After that we scored three times, two in the fifth inning and once in the seventh, and the other team scored twice, both in the sixth. The score: 4-3.

In the ninth inning they scored by another run by the same guy Farmer knew getting another home run, tying the score.

The game ended in a tie: 4-4. I made the last out. We packed up and went home.

**Chapter 4: The Belly Shirted One**

As usual, after most games, Hawk and his dad came over to my house after the game. And as usual; my sister was on her computer, my mom cooking dinner, our dad's watching a game and talking in the living room, and we went in my room to do stuff.

"Well, Ashley Zalverik couldn't nor wouldn't look away from you today, eh." he said to me, smiling.

"What?" I said with a confused look.

"Ashley Zalverik" he repeated. I still looked confused. "The girl in the stands." Still confused look. He sighed, "The one from school, in our grade." I still looked confused and he sighed. He put his hands together, "The belly shirted one."

"Oh, her, ya, I remember her." I realized it.

"Of course, four words make you understand whom I'm talking about." He said, sighing. "Now let's play some baseball," he looked out the window. "oh yeah it's too dark to play, I forgot it's nighttime. Well then I guess we should play MLB 2010 now." I nodded and turned the PS3 on.

I was terrible at the thing, well not always. Normally I'm actually good at MLB 2010, but tonight; I wasn't.

I picked the team the Boston Red Sox. I know I don't live in Boston, but I used to, when I was four. Then we moved down here. He played as the White Sox for some reason.

"Sox vs. Sox, who will be the winner." he chuckled.

When we started I struck out three times. The game looked terrible for my team. It was only the second inning and we were already behind 1-7. We got to the ninth inning and we ended quickly. Score: 2-14. I forgot to tell you, my mom made an intercom in every room, so when she said, "Dinner, breakfast, or lunch." Then we had no excuse not to hear.

"Boys, dinner! Oh, and you too Resios."

When we arrived in the kitchen it was spaghetti for dinner. We ate and everyone talked, happily at ease, except for me.

"Hey you should've see the pitch." My dad said.

"I did Frost." Hawk's dad said.

"Mr. Dalabreak, please pass the sauce." Hawk asked my dad. When he got it he pretended his spaghetti was a hawk by swooping in and taking the spaghetti out. Then he poured some sauce on it to look like blood.

"Oh great a pest in the house at the dinner table." my mom said. "And a big flying one at that." Everyone laughed.

Hawk and his dad left later after another losing game on the PS3. I slept well that night, but my mind was still on something.

**Chapter 5: Tiny Talks to me**

The next few days we had practice and that was about the only interesting thing that happened. My video game skills were really down.

On the fifth practice I noticed Ashley was watching me again. The ball that Farmer hit almost knocked me out, but luckily my reflexes are good and strong.

When it was my turn to practice batting I hit a few balls in the outfield, which was weird. My dad was surprised.

When I practiced pitching I threw it anywhere other than near the batter, again it surprised my dad.

On Saturday; they're a visiting game against the JET FLYERS in the morning and we lost. Score: 13-1. Which was mostly my falt. Tiny was the only one who scored.

Something was bothering me. Hawk could tell. Today though he had to go over to his house instead of mine. The weirdest thing happened today though. After the game Tiny came over to me.

"Atom I wish to go over to your residence here and now is that okay." he asked me, he liked using big words, and luckily I could understand some of it.

"Yeah, guess so. Hey dad!" I shouted at him.

"What?" He shouted back.

"Can Tiny come over?"

"Sure."

"Really."

"No."

"Please?"

"Fine, but if our house shrinks because of him–"

"Dad."

"Kidding."

When we went home we went into my room Tiny asked me a question.

"Atom I comprehend something abides quavering you." he said. I looked stunned.

"Whoa too many big words, I'm confused."

He sighed, "I disregarded your cerebration is too adolescent to perceive my lexicons. Let's try this again. I know something is troubling your mind."

"Oh yeah. I don't know what it is though."

"Tell me everything that has happened recently that could have something to do with it."

"It all started when I noticed Ashley Zalverik was watching me."

"Ahh, youth's infatuation. So that's what this is about."

"What?"

"In younger terms: your in love with her."

"What? I am not."

"Yes you are. It fits perfectly to the description by the way you're acting."

I thought about it and if he thought it he probably right. With that off my shoulders, I played a video game with him and won. I was getting better again.

**Chapter 6: I Get Run Over by a Truck**

The next day I was going to get to watch the (MLB Baseball) game in the morning with my dad. My mom had different plans.

"Adam, go to the grocery store and get these items on this list on the table. If you hurry you can still watch the game." she told me early in the morning on the intercom. The grocery store was a few blocks away. So I put on some pants, a shirt, some shoes, and a jacket, took the list and walked out the door to go to the grocery store. This is what the list looked like.

Grocery List

1. 11 packs of muffin baking mix

-blueberry

-razzberry

-cherry

-blackberry

-bannana

-chocolate chip

-chocolate

-double chocolate

-corn

-coffee

-cinnamon

2. 10 packs of cake baking mix

-party

-chocolate

-vanilla

-strawberry

-twistcoola

-berran

-lixerat

-bageled

-nuted

-bluefaci

3. butter

4. milk

5. eggs

6. a lot of Bisquik pancake mix

7. 1 of every Eggo waffle package you can find in the store

8. ice cream

-chocolate

-vanilla

-strawberry

-Friendly's Xtreme

9. bread

10. cookies

11. donuts

12. cupcakes

13. any other deserts you find in the store that are good

I remembered that this was when my mom started packing up a lot of food because we have a huge party at the end of the summer baseball season and a lot of deserts are eaten and a lot of people show up.

Now just so you know; I don't have a Walmart or anything like that around the corner. I have the "Various Items" grocery store. Which is a store that has everything you need, except a lot of cash registers. The name changes a lot depending on the time of the year. For example: around Christmas time, "Ho-holiday Shopping". Right now it's the "Home Run Heroes.

When I got in the store I started on getting the items. I started at the window where the bread was, I was decided to try to look at the bread and find some cinnamon swirl bread.

She was there, I saw her, yes I knew, and she was here.

Out on the street in the middle of a crosswalk was Ashley Zalverik. She had been walking and she dropped something by accident from her purse. She bent down to pick up whatever it was that had fell down.

HONK! I looked over and saw a delivery truck out of control apparently (because the guy was screaming out his window 'watch out' and that the tires were screeching) the breaks had been broken. I screamed, then ran out the door shouted at Ashley and pushed her out of the way…

I woke up in a weird room with an African-American nurse standing next to my bed checking a list on a clipboard, I was in a bed. I tried to sit up, but the pain was huge.

"Don't try to sit up please," the nurse assured me, "you had a huge risky play there, you're lucky to be alive."

I tried to speak but my words came out a little weird, "Wha haffn' foo fay. Hair am I. M' I 'onna be o'way."

"Oh and you have a numb tung, due to the medicine given to you because if it wasn't given to you then you would feel that your tung, and mouth, and throat are on fire."

"Dar."

"You realize I barely can understand what you're saying right."

"Es." I said, she pushed a button on the wall and a slit opened up in it beside the button, she wrote a few things on another piece of paper and shoved it down through the slit. It closed.

"Ow lon' 'ave I een ow?"

"Uhhhh," she thought for a second trying to find out what I said, "oh, you have been out for about a week."

I tried to sit up again, forgetting the pain until it came again, "Ow! O! O! O! O! No!"

"You need to rest now." she told me. It wasn't hard to obey that command.

**Chapter 7: I Spend Some Time in the Hospital**

I woke up feeling better. Well better than before, better than worse at least. I could sit up but I wasn't allowed to get out of bed except to go to the bathroom. Luckily my numb tung was gone.

"You're still recovering." the nurse told me one day. "Now relax."

When my family came in my mother almost hugged me, but stopped when the nurse told her no. My dad was speechless. My sister even came.

"So are you feeling better." Resios asked.

"Well considering I can't leave; not much."

"Well thanks for trying to get run over by a truck," she said sarcastically. "and succeeding. Somehow living afterwards."

"Oh, please get better soon." my mother pleaded.

Later one day Hawk tried to get in the room, but the nurse stopped him.

"I want to go in." he shouted.

"Shhh, please be less loud." she said.

"But I want to go in, now, he's my friend and-." Hawk said in a lower volume.

Just then I heard a voice. "Hawk, let me take it from here." Oh, I knew that voice, Tiny, it was Tiny.

"Sure." Hawk sighed.

Tiny started his smart talk, "Excuse me Miss, will you dovetail; authorize us access the chamber?"

The nurse took a few seconds to respond, "Uh, whoa, okay yes go ahead."

"Yes!" Hawk almost shouted.

They entered, I decided to speak now, "Hey guys."

Tiny was still talking smart, "I contemplate you are experiencing an enhanced body."

"English please."

"Oh yeah, I hope you are feeling better."

"Well Mr. Extremist," Hawk said chuckling, "what's your story this time."

"Well I was out, and I…was getting groceries, quickly so I could watch the game. I see Ashley in the middle of a crosswalk trying to pick something up. Then a big truck comes by, and you can easily tell its brakes are broken. Then I run to save her, I jump and push her out of the way. Black out. I wake up in here and…you get the picture."

"Ya, you saved a girl." Hawk replied chuckling. Tiny laughed his head off.

The nurse came in with the entire team.

Farmer looked at me and frowned, "Ahh, mon, why did ya try to commi' sui'ide?"

"I didn't." I retorted.

"Well you are in the hospital" Potato said.

"Ya." Vivi added.

"You made us lose another game, even though you weren't even there." Winter scolded.

"Hey, you weren't doing well during that game, don't be talking." Jessy said.

"Shut-up!" Winter said playfully.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Joey said. I forgot to tell you that Jessy and Joey are going out.

"Win'er stop bein' an annoyance." Farmer snapped at Winter.

"Well anyway, I hope you get better soon." Ed said.

"I think he will…" Gamma said. "he will…be a nuisance when he is better." he laughed.

One morning the nurse came in and did her usual check-up.

"You are doing well." she said.

"I feel well."

She smiled, "Splendid."

I watched as she wrote down more things. Then left, only to come back once more.

She smiled at me, "You are free to leave. Bye-bye."

"Bye." I said. I got out of bed and packed.

I left the next morning.

**Chapter 8: Apologies and Thank You's**

I was welcomed home nicely. I was happy to be back. My mom made cake. It was great. I even beat Hawk.

The next game came soon. We were the visitors. We were against the Copykat Jaguars. Whose colors were black and dark yellow.

When we all arrived I saw the line-up.

Pitcher-1. Ed

Catcher-2. Farmer

First Base-3. Tiny

Second Base-4. Gamma

Third Base-5. Joey

Shortstop-6. Atom

Rightfield-7. Winter

Centerfield-8. Jessy

Leftfield-9. Vivi

When we started Ed was up. The pitcher pitched the ball.

"Ball!" the umpire shouted.

Ed swung at the next two pitches and got a strike and a foul. He waited for the next pitch. I saw the pitch and Ed jumped just in time before the ball nailed him. The next pitch came and Ed swung.

"Foul!" the umpire shouted again.

The pitcher laughed and pitched the next ball. Ed hit it and got a double. Nobody didn't score anything in the first inning.

In the second inning we scored two points. They scored one.

The third was a no scorer.

The fourth was a no scorer.

The fifth had us scoring five. None for them.

The sixth ended the game, with us winning, and the score: 3-8.

After the game I realized that the grocery list hadn't been gotten.

I went to my dad and asked, "Dad, the day that I got run over, what happened to the groceries I needed to get?"

He looked at me trying to explain to himself what I was talking about, "Oh, yeah, they weren't gotten. I guess your getting into the hospital took away our attention from that."

"Can I get them?"

"Sure, but don't take to long."

I started walking to the store when he shouted my name.

"What?" I asked.

"Try not to get run over by a truck this time, okay." he laughed.

"Alright." I replied.

When I got to the store I found the list still where I left it, on the ground right next to a bread bag.

I picked it up and looked out the window. I put the bag down, the list in my pocket. There she was, out on the corner of the sidewalk (luckily not in the middle of the street) was Ashley Zalverik.

She was not alone. Her dad, Raymond Zalverik, was standing next to her, hand on shoulder. Her dad must have been ten feet tall. I thought about it, and agreed with myself on that thought. He was big, and had an abundant amount of muscles.

I looked around to see who she was really looking at, I found no one besides me and a few cashiers were in the store, at least near me. She was looking at me. She motioned me to come. I slowly walked out the door, cautiously shutting it. She smiled a little then it faded. Ashley walked around the corner so I couldn't see her, but her dad still remained.

"Hello," he said coolly, his voice deep and relaxed, "are you Adam Dalabreak?"

I nodded.

He grinned for a second, "Come with me, my daughter would like to speak with you."

I tried to answer respectfully, only to answer in a low whisper, "Okay."

"Follow me." He started walking away, I followed. He took me around a few streets, then we got to a nice, country like street with lots of grass and not so many buildings. We went into a nice small grassy meadow. He stopped at a tree and stood there.

"Go on." He said, sort of pushing me.

I walked a few yards forward and saw Ashley, leaning on a tree. When she saw me she slightly smiled. She stepped away from the tree. She walked toward me and stopped a little few feet away from me.

"Hello." Ashley said, her voice like a melody, "Hello, Adam Dalabreak."

My mouth felt dry, I barely knew why, "Uh, h-hi, Ashley Zalverik."

"I'm sorry." She started crying a little.

I stared at her blankly, "Sorry, for what."

"Sorry for almost getting you killed."

"What?"

"I'm sorry for staying in the middle of the street, so that you noticed me, so then an out-of-control truck is going down the street and is going to hit me, so then you have to run out the door, of the store that you were trying to shop at, to save me and get hurt, and almost killed."

"Oh, yeah, oh, oh, that's okay."

She was really crying now, "No," she shook her head, "no it's not."

"What, I already said it's okay."

"No, if you died it really wouldn't be okay. Don't you understand."

"Yeah, but still it is okay." I kind of shouted at her. That made me feel bad.

I almost forgot that her dad was here. "Hey, my girl, if he says it's okay then its okay." That made us both jump. She smiled, though.

"Okay". she said, still smiling. "Oh and thank you, for saving me, by the way."

"You're welcome."

"Can we please be friends."

"Yes!" she sort of screamed delighted.

"Come on," her dad said, "we gotta get home before your mother freaks out that we're not at home yet."

"One second, dad." she replied, she turned back to face me. "Oh, by the way, my dad's friend works at the store and saw your list, he is delivering the items as we speak to your house."

"Thanks."

"Now; you're welcome." she paused for a second, "Oh, before I go, this is for saving me."

She kissed me, on the cheek. Then she left, while I stood dumbfounded.

For some reason, even though they were already gone, I waved to and said, "Bye!"

**Chapter 9: Gang+Run Away=The Bat**

We eventually introduced each other to our parents and got each other's phone and cell phone numbers.

The first "date" went well. We kissed on the lips. Our families didn't freak out.

On another game I was greeted with questions about her by my teammates.

"Who is she?"

"Where is she?"

"How did it start?"

"Where did it start?"

"Why did it start?"

"Why her?"

"Did you kiss yet?"

"For how long?"

After so many questions I got a little irritated. We won. Score: 21-7.

Hawk didn't be so irritating, though.

"Hey she is your girl after all, congratulations." he told me.

"Yes." Ashley answered for me.

One morning I walked into the kitchen and found my dad reading the paper.

"Not good." he told me in a low whisper.

"What…why? What are you talking about." I asked.

"Look at the front page news." he answered. I did and gasped.

**NEW MURDERUS GANG IN TOWN: THE**

**WINGCUTTERS**

Last night at a baseball field; a vicious gang of men proudly announced themselves as: THE WINGCUTTERS. They murdered seven people and injured fifteen.

We have a quote from one of the survivors, "I was having a nice time on a park bench, next a numerous gang of boys start making some noise. Then I am running for my life."

The police have suggested to stay away from this area, and make sure your doors and windows are locked.

I stared at it and gasped.

"Dad," I asked. "is this real?"

"Yeah, and you better watch out for this gang, these; WINGCUTTERS."

"Well I was going to go with Ashley to Hawk's."

He cocked his head for a second, thought about it and then answered, "Fine, but be very careful, no going near the ballpark, and notify Harry (Hawk's dad) for me."

"Okay."

When I picked Ashley up she already knew about the gang.

"WINGCUTTERS, not good." she told me.

"Well duh." I replied.

"Shut it." she said playfully.

We got to Hawk's house with the entire team in it, except every girl wasn't there, but Jessy. Everyone already knew about the gang.

Hawk greeted me happily, "Hey, you hear-?"

"Yeah." I answered before he finished.

"Well will you come with us?" he asked.

"To what?" Ashley and I said together, both getting confused.

"The entire team's, except the girls that didn't come, going to the Ice Cream place around the corner. It's safe and I think we should go. Pleeeeaaaase? It won't be the same without you." he told us.

"Sure." I replied.

"Uh…hmm, okay." Ashley said, her voice a little unsure.

Hawk smiled, "Good, well then, we all go in ten minuets."

When we left the house we walked around the corner, talking about the ice cream you were going to get, whether or not you had enough money, and how good it would taste.

When we turned around the corner we gasped at what we found. The place was wreaked.

"What the heck happened?" Hawk screamed.

Ashley held my hand and with her free one, pointed to the graffiti on one wall.

"Look," she said. "the WINGCUTTERS."

Sure enough, there was a drawing of a wing with the word, WINGCUTTERS, under it.

"Look at that, they found it out." a mysterious sinister voice said.

Suddenly eight guys jumped out, I think out of nowhere.

The one who had spoken, a dark and longhaired young man, looked at one with a big red stripe-like mohawk. "Yeah, they sure did Fly."

"Let's get them, Shadow." Fly replied.

"Yes, lets…wait." Shadow said.

"What?" Fly asked.

"Turk." Shadow said to a short brown haired man. "Don't you see, it's them, the baseball players."

"Yeah," Turk replied. Then pointed to Ashley. "Except her."

"Get them, bring me the nonpayer!" Shadow shouted. I was getting the idea that Shadow was the leader.

Joey kissed Jessy and she ran off.

Hawk whispered to me quickly, "Hey, we'll take care of this, you get your girlfriend out of here, but watch her and keep her safe. Don't worry we'll hold them off, we've got Farmer, Tiny, and me, and more. Though if the girls were fighters we'd outnumber em' by three."

"Okay." I answered in a really quick whisper. I still had Ashley's hand in mine, so I just ran with her; away. I looked back for a second and saw Farmer punching Fly and picking him up then throwing him into Turk.

While we ran Ashley said, "To bad that my dad's not here, he'd be a big help."

I chuckled for a second.

"Where are you taking me?"

"I don't know, just away from here."

I kept taking her away, farther and farther, though the noise of the fight staying the same. They must have been moving while fighting to stay close.

We got to a point where I didn't have any idea how to get back home. For a second I thought that the WINGCUTTERS had won. Then I heard a bang.

Suddenly the fight reached a few feet behind us. I didn't turn around, I just kept running. We got to a dead end with a locked door and its sign with a big CLOSED on it, and the store's title said; WARLOCK'S BAZAAR.

"Go tell the people in the shop that we need help." I told Ashley.

She nodded and let go of my hand. She walked over to the door and started pounding on it. "Open up, we need help. Someone…anyone…please?"

I turned around and saw them getting real close, I got in front of Ashley and cut off any amount of easy going at her. No one would get her.

I saw that no one on my team was there, so they did lose. Oh no, how many were dead. I started to lose hope.

I don't know how, but every male team member somehow showed up at that exact moment.

I couldn't make out anyone's battle scars.

I did see that Farmer was nailing Turk and Fly again.

I saw Tiny punch, jump, kick, and knock out a big guy.

Winter had a pipe in his hand (who the heck knows how he got it) and was swinging it around hitting them a lot.

Ed and Joey were tag teaming one that was wearing spiky gloves.

Gamma was throwing one into another and punching another.

Hawk was going at Shadow. He really did fight like a hawk. He would go far away from Shadow, come in fast, nail Shadow hard, and before Shadow could do the same, get far away again. One time Shadow knocked Hawk down, though.

Farmer had finished with Fly and Turk and was getting over to helping with Shadow.

One of them, got threw their defenses. I punched him in the gut, kicked his knee so he buckled over, and slammed him on the head to knock him out.

When the fight looked like it was almost over (with us winning), about twenty more of them jumped out of nowhere. Causing our hope to go down the drain.

I saw that they were getting close, I couldn't take them all.

The door to the store opened and a mysterious man in a robe walked out. He had a long gray beard. His gray hair a little spiky.

"Stop this at once!" he said, firm and loud.

Every WINGCUTTER's attention was turned to him.

"Oh yeah, and who's gonna make us." Shadow said.

"Me." the mysterious man answered, with confidence and seriousness in his voice. Every WINGCUTTER laughed.

The mysterious man put a hand in his pocket and when he took it out a white glowing ball was in it. He held it out as if waiting for it to rise up in the air.

"Lekoo Zeeae!" he shouted. Suddenly the ball slowly rose up in the air.

"This isn't realistic." I said.

"What is this." Ashley added.

The ball shot many beams, at the WINGCUTTERS. Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Beeu! Each time a beam would hit a WINGCUTTER and he would disappear.

When it was over the ball turned to dust.

"Oh my gosh. You disintegrated them." Ashley said with astonishment.

"No, no, little lady, their molecules and particles are still in tact. I have transported them far, far, far away from here." he assured her. "Now if anyone needs me, my store is now open."

I noticed the sign now said OPEN.

He went inside again.

I walked with Ashley over to check on my friends. I didn't look that bad. Winter had a few scratches. Farmer had his shirt ripped off and his left arm bruised. Hawk had a rip in his shirt, he had a bleeding lip, and a forehead bruise. Joey was knocked out and had five bruises on his forehead. Gamma looked like a piece of blue cheese with bruises everywhere. Ed had three thin cuts; one on his cheek, one on his ankle, and one was on his back. Tiny was the worst, (first of all he was knocked out, and) let me put it this way. Bleeding: both shoulders, both elbows, left hand, right arm, nosebleed, lip, right ear, right knee, and his back. Bruises: almost everywhere.

Ashley took out her cell phone to call for some ambulances. "Hello…we are uhhh, one second…" she look at everyone, "Where the heck are we."

Farmer was the one two answer, "Ahh, we are at Ol' Cavern Corner."

Old Cavern Corner…and we have a lot of injuries…caused by the WINGCUTTERS. Yeah we'll be waiting here." Hawk took care of the rest by keep talking, he understood more of what they would ask.

"Ashley I think we should thank that man." I told her. She nodded.

She quickly kissed me (on the lips).

I opened the door. I was dazzled, I saw all this stuff you can't ordinarily ever see. Such as: love potions, automatic pens and pencils, flying shoes, and forever-tasteful gum.

The man appeared from out of an aisle. "Yes."

"We wanted to thank you." Ashley said.

"You're welcome, but no, thank you, that was actually more entertaining than I've gotten in a hundred years."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"You can call me Warlock, that's what I am." he answered a little unsure. "For entertain me you may each take one, free, thing, no two but see me before you leave."

I believed him, and she did to, I could tell.

We went around the place and she found a ring of invisibility, a ring with a blue gem in it. She quickly found a pair of flying shoes. I was amazed at what I saw.

I walked into the magic sports section and saw the most awesome bat I ever saw. It had a huge stream of shiny colors and it had a look to me like: TAKE ME.

I took it and we walked over to the counter.

"You first Ashley." he said.

She stuttered, "How do you know my name?"

"I'm a Warlock." he returned, raising an eyebrow. "Remember. Now about those items."

"What is the differemce between a Warlock and a Wizard and etc?"

"Well a Warlock focuses in mostly magic and magical items, plus both genders are called Warlock, mortals made males Warlock only…hah, idiots. A Wizard or Witch is focused in mostly magic as well, but unlike Warlocks they are into Astronomy and have basic items such as wands and staffs only. A Majician is just a mortal pretending to have magical powers, but using tricks and cunning for profit. Finally, a Sorcerer or Sorceress has magical power too, but is a master in potions and such."

"Oh here." she said, handing her items over.

"Let me tell you about these items." he chattered. "This," he held up the ring. "is a real sapphire. If you put this on your finger." She put it on her finger. "And you turn the ring this way." He turned it. "Now you push this." He pointed to a tiny knob/button on the side of the ring. She pushed it.

All of a sudden she wasn't there anymore.

"Whoa!" said Ashley's voice. "Wow!"

Warlock smiled, "You press on the gem to return to be visual."

I heard a click and she appeared.

"Good," he said. "now your shoes, these are tricky. There are not any wings. So put them on–wait–no I'll go get the woman's wear."

Nothing happened, just the shoe changed into a ruby red high heel.

"So you put these on." he told her.

She put them on.

"Now you jump into the air and kick you heels together."

She did that and she floated in midair.

"To fly you must keep your feet together, then you just imagine yourself flying to move."

She started flying around a little bit.

"Oh to land you simple tap your heels together and the shoes will do the rest."

She did and the shoes automatically landed on the floor making her land feet first on the ground nicely.

"Great, you are a fast learner. Now you, Adam."

"Here." I gave him the bat.

He shuddered, "Oi!" Clang! He dropped it. "No, anything but this."

"Why?"

"That bat is cursed."

"What?"

"A long time ago; my brother created this. It performed great. Then another warlock became jealous. He cursed that bat that the next time it was used that that person would be great at baseball but soon would have something terrible happen to him."

"Kill them?"

"No, do something that will torture them, killing is just ending a torture"

"Then why is it for sale?"

"It's not." He took a tag off of it that read: NOT FOR SALE.

"Please?"

"No."

"What's your real name?" I asked, wondering why I even asked.

He thought for a second, "My name…is…my full name is Aljerio Protor Alavordon Quoton Frankstin Chinkapu Gambunter."

"Well Aljerio…what if I take the bat use it and bring it back in a few weeks. I would like to use it." I told him.

"NO!" he howled. "Wait…hold this bat."

I took it.

"Now….that bat has already chosen its next victim and it wants you. Fine but remember what I told you, and that counts as two things since it's cursed, oh and keep in touch."

I took it in and said, "Okay."

We took our things and left. Too both of our surprises we came out to see that it was night and that the ambulances had already come. We both took about two hours to find a road knew.

She told me tapping her heals, "These are gonna be my favorite shoes. Bye."

"Bye."

I walked home and crept to my room, and fell asleep.

**Chapter 10: The Hospital Again**

It was not even morning when I awoke to the sound of someone opening my window. I sat up and looked at it, it was open. I heard a quick tap sound on the floor.

"Who's there?" I whispered.

"Me," Ashley said. I realized she was invisible. "oh, yeah, I forgot I'm invisible." I heard a click and she appeared. "These things are awesome. I found out how to get to Aljerio's Bazaar."

"You flew in through my window." I whispered.

"Yes."

"How long have you been here? What time is it?"

"About five minuets I guess, and about five in the morning." she whispered.

"Oh, well…what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

I smiled and nodded, "Okay."

"What are we gonna tell them? We got attacked from the WINGCUTTERS and were rescued by a Warlock. They'll never believe it."

"I don't know," I thought for a second. "I've got it, we were attacked by the WINGCUTTERS, and then a strange man came out carrying a machine gun and a machete and the WINGCUTTERS fled."

"Best we got." she answered.

"Oh and we won't be able to show anyone else the two abnormal things you have. Well at least can't show that they turn you invisible and let you fly."

"Good idea."

"I-I love you."

"I love you, too."

I noticed I still had the same clothes on from yesterday.

She sat on the bed and I saw she had changed her clothes while she was at her house, unlike me. She lay on me for a few seconds. Then she kissed me (and from now on unless I tell you; you can assume it's on the lips). We stayed like that for a few minutes and I knew I must love her. Tiny had always been right.

Then I realized something. "Tiny!" I screamed.

"Shhhhh." Ashley lulled. "What?"

"Tiny, remember he was the worst to find, and everyone else. I'm going to leave a note on my bed, get changed, and get outside, meet me there." I told her.

She didn't say anything, she just nodded tapping her heels and went flying out the window.

I changed, wrote a note, and then realized I would have to write another to explain why I was going to the hospital and how that happened. Then when I got outside it was already about six thirty in the morning. Ashley was waiting for me when I got out.

"You got mail." she told me, holding a letter.

"Thanks." I said, taking it. I opened it had no date of sent, no address of which it was from, and this is what I read (well Ashley read over my shoulder).

Dear Adam and Ashley,

I am reminding you are welcome to go to the Bazaar. So I have attached a map to this piece of paper. I hope you will visit sometime.

Remember the curse and notify me when you have had the curse affect you.

from,

Aljerio Protor Alavordon Quoton Frankstin Chinkapu Gambunter

I stared at it thinking. Then I took the map out of the attachment.

Both of us gasped. It was so detailed. It was as detailed as a Leonardo Da Vinchi painting, like the Mona Lisa. I saw that the Bazaar was far away from the ice cream place. I questioned how I could have ran so far. Well now we could get there easier.

"Wow, it's beautiful!" Ashley exclaimed.

"Yeah," I said. "well we got to get to the hospital."

When we got there (she flew there) the lady at the desk said to take a seat. When we could finally state our business the lady told us we had to wait another ten minutes. Next we entered the elevator and went to the injured floor. I looked for Tiny's name, anyone's name.

I went over to a nurse, "Miss where's Tiny?"

"What?" she said.

I forgot she obviously only knew his real name, "Oh, yeah, his name is Manny…Manny Fairyshort."

She thought for a second and I realized she was the same nurse that I had before, "I remember you now, the road accident, right."

"Yeah." I answered.

"Oh, and Manny Fairyshort…" she said, "he is currently getting his rest time right now, sorry."

"That's okay," I told her politely. "then what about Thomas Hawkinson."

"He's…checked out."

"Really, then what about, Jason Felveritz?"

"Checked out."

"And Whither Coldstock?"

"Checked out as well."

"What about John Holonan?"

"He is on this floor."

"How is Edward Numbergam?"

"Same as John Holonan."

"Shawn Gammawalker?"

"Same again."

"Can I see any of them?" "John is this way." She showed me a room I walked in and Ashley followed, noiselessly. I saw Jessy, holding Joey's hand was in here, too.

Joey looked better than how he had before.

"Hey Atom," he said. "So what's the story." Ashley explained it to him (and Jessy) what the story was (well the one that didn't make us sound insane).

"Okay." He said. "Jessy I already told you, I'm fine."

Jessy started crying.

"Well I'm going to go see everyone else. Tell everyone the story for me." I told him.

"Okay." Joey said.

We left and the nurse was waiting.

"Edward is over here." She led us to another room. We walked in. He looked better, too.

"Joey will tell you the story." I told Ed.

"Good. Well I don't know about you, but that was one good fight. Hey Ash." He told me.

"Hey." Ashley spoke.

"I'm starving!" Ed sounded. "Though I want real food, I don't like the food here. Tastes like tofu."

"Well I'm going to go see Gamma." I told him.

"Yah, okay, I want to watch the T.V. anyway." He said, pointing to the T.V. on the ceiling.

We left and the nurse led us to Gamma's room.

He looked better as well.

"Hi, Joey's gonna tell you the story." I stated.

"Good." Gamma justified. "Nice rumble, I must say, I think I would like to do it again."

"Don't push your luck," Ashley gabbed. "I don't think that you're getting another one that easy."

"Hey, what are you talking about?" Gamma sarcastically polled. "Anyway I hope Tiny pulls through. It just won't be the same without him."

"We were about to see him, but he's sleeping." I hastily claimed.

"Oh, you were, eh." Gamma smirked. "Well then, go on…go on and wait to see him. I'm not the one that is close to being on my deathbed."

"Okay." I snapped.

Ashley and I left the room.

I found the nurse and asked, "Can we see Ti-Manny Fairyshort now, please."

"No. Not yet." She whispered.

"When then?" I moaned.

She sighed, "Just go into the lobby and wait there. I'll go get you when he's available."

"Okay." Ashley answered before I shouted. She made me look at her and spoke in a low whisper, "Come on, let's go wait down in the lobby, please don't shout."

That stung, I suddenly felt terrible, "Sorry."

"Okay, come on now." She tugged my arm.

While we were in the lobby I started to notice that the line was not that long anymore.

Ashley tapped me (for some reason I didn't respond) and she whispered, "Atom…hey Adam."

I slightly jumped, "Oi! Oh sorry, what?"

She groaned, "I was wondering, why do you think that Tiny got the most hurt? I thought he's supposed to be a good fighter."

The question took me by surprise, "I don't know. Now that you mention it, I am asking the same question. I see him fight and I think he's efficient at it. I wonder why. Maybe his size…maybe he was trying to go up against to many, or maybe something else."

A guy who had blonde hair, reddish-blue eyes, and had a blue and black pokadot bow tie interrupted my thoughts.

He tapped me on the shoulder, "Fufufu…uyah…oioioi."

I almost screamed at him but Ashley tapped me on the shoulder before I did.

"What?" I whispered. "What the heck in an inferno is it?"

He didn't even shake, "Sorry, but you look troubled."

"No I'm not." I muttered sarcastically.

"Why then?" he happily asked.

"I'm just worried for my friend." I whispered. "He took a brawl with the WINGCUTTERS and he didn't look to good."

He jumped, "Whoa! Tangled with those men. No wonder, but still…you need to be a little less worrying and let a bit go. You're friend could be doing better. Just let the worry leave your body and make room for some hope."

For a second I thought this guy might be a hippy or something. Then he left. That made me think and I found myself starting to slowly relax.

Eventually the nurse came down to get us and she led us to a room and took us inside.

I gasped and saw that Tiny looked only a little better, his bleeding was still in a swelling and hardening state. He wasn't wearing his glasses

He looked at me. He barely smiled.

His voice sounded steel like, "Hey Atom hey Ash."

"Hey, Joey will tell you the story and how are you feeling?" Ashley whispered.

Tiny frowned, "Not good. I've been better." He grinned for a second, "I've been worse too."

I didn't think I just spat out, "I hope you get better."

They both stared at me for a second. "That is kind of obvious." Tiny said.

I noticed that since Tiny wasn't saying anything advanced; that meant he really wasn't feeling good.

"How come with all your skills in fighting; you got so racked up."

He winced, "I don't exactly understand it, but I will tell you the story from my view."

He closed his eyes and started speaking, "When you left; Farmer fought with Fly and Turk. Hawk took Shadow, obviously. Then everyone went fighting. Winter found a pipe and loved hitting them with it. Edward punched every guy he saw. Joey was jumping on a guys head and kicking another guy's. I swear I saw Farmer rip out a stop sign and use it as a weapon. Hawk was kicking Shadow's butt. He eventually flipped Shadow over."

He paused, "We fought while they kept slowly pushed us toward you. We wanted to stop them and not keep moving, but we couldn't do it. I kept going around doing everything I could." He sort of chuckled, "I kind of put a lot on my hands. Then Joey was thrown into a wall and a few of them somehow pushed away everyone except Farmer, Hawk, and me. Shadow did something to Hawk to make him fall behind. They ran and ran. Farmer and I ended up running after them and then Turk picked something up, I don't know what he picked up, but he threw it at Farmer. He fell behind with everyone else. I still followed them, dodging any objects they threw at me. Then when I caught up to Fly he took out some weird thing and threw it at the wall of a house that was just about next to me. BOOM! The thing exploded and I staggered, that probably explains some of my injuries. The thing Fly threw explains the big bang you probably heard."

He paused again, "Then we could tell they had caught up to you, we all ran as fast as we could. We all didn't pay attention to anyone's battle scars or anything, and Hawk kind of briefly pep talked us and we finally reached the dead end."

He winced, "You know the rest. I honestly don't know when I went out exactly. I just kept fighting. It went all autopilot and instinct. They broke my glasses though, which probably had blurred my vision and lowered my skills."

"Wow." I said.

Ashley spoke up, "Oh, so that's how it happened. Well, our part is simple. We run and run and soon enough you guys are where we are."

I saw her face, I knew that face. It was her thinking face, her processing face, and her analyzing expression. I saw her eyes look up and down. I made sure I didn't interrupt her right now.

"Ugh." Tiny groaned.

"What, are you hurt?" I asked.

"No." Tiny moaned. "I have a headache, and I can't think about this to much like I normally could. Watching her do it so much is sort of torture."

Ashley stopped, looking out the window and said, "Why?"

Tiny snorted, "Why, why do I like to think? Come on Ash…you know I like to think."

Ashley moaned, "No! No, that's not what I meant! Why do I hear dangerous sounds coming from outside?"

"I think you're thinking too hard…I don't hear anything." I laughed.

"No! Be quiet. You'll hear it." She whispered, putting a hand to her ear.

I stopped. I listened and so did Tiny…thud. I heard it…a tiny… little…destructive noise…bangs…it was coming from somewhere below us outside.

I went over to the window, Ashley following me.

"What do you see." Tiny whispered. "Ow, my pains."

I looked as far down as I could see. I stared…and then; I saw it. Five guys were a few blocks away destroying a bunch of cars. I couldn't make out whom they were.

Ashley frowned, "Four, no, a guy just came out from under there…five guys wrecking havoc."

Tiny grinned, "I think I can think enough to give a good guess. The WINGCUTTERS!"

I thought about it. All the reasons were true. Though for one; they were supposed to be FAR AWAY.

"But then how are they here?" Ashley complained.

Tiny answered hastily, "They have more, duh."

"Well now that we know they're here, and that we are safe. Let's call the police." Ashley suggested. She took out her cell phone. After a few minutes she hung-up. "Downtown they're wrecking havoc, as well, only with A LOT more guys. Too many, and even the hospital emergency defenses are already too busy. We're on our own."

"They don't even care?" I asked angrily and rhetorically.

Ashley answered anyway, "No, they wish us luck, but they would help if they could."

I sighed, "Great. Sorry Tiny you can't come. Ashley you can call for help. Get Farmer and Hawk if you can please."

She nodded. Taking out her cell phone again.

"I'll go start the fight." I proudly announced.

Ashley looked dismayed, "Be careful."

I smiled, "Sure."

She kissed me and I walked down and out the front door of the Hospital.

I went out toward where I saw them, the black block. When I saw them I saw how they looked, the WINGCUTTERS definitely were these guys. None of them looked familiar, though.

One of them, a round-ish like one, muscular, with a black and red flamed jacket, and sunglasses stepped towards me.

He smiled a sinister smile, "Hey you, you gonna pull some bullcrap, or are you just passing threw? If you're passing threw then you have to pay the price." His voice was loud and booming. He reminded me of Ashley's father.

I noticed another one, big, tall, muscular, a brown big cowboy hat and cowboy boots. He also looked about eighteen or nineteen. He was slightly dark skinned.

He walked next to the guy who reminded me of Ashley's dad. He pointed at me, "Hey, he's was one of the guy's that Shadow found. From the ballplayers." He had a cowboy accent too. I noticed he had an old cowboy-style pistol on his belt, real small.

The big guy stared at me, "Yeah I think you're right Buck."

'Here we go again.' I thought.

"I still can't believe Shadow and his gang lost." Buck said. "Well when Shadow and his gang get back they'll take the rest down. Right Gailwing."

"Yeah." The big guy who I was sure was Gailwing answered.

I got tired of them discussing this so I talked, "Yeah I'm from the, 'ballplayers' and I'm here to kick your butts!" I shouted. "Or do you prefer me to kick your wings."

Buck put his hand on his gun almost taking it out of its socket. I stopped and shuddered, my courage faltering, but I would still hold my ground. Buck cursed under his breath, "What did you say to me, to us, you little cow pie in manure."

I gulped, and then screamed, "You heard me; unless you want to be an ugly bat, get out of here, scram, beat it, before I beat you."

Gailwing was furious and cursing, "You!" He pointed his finger at me. "Buck get him! Don't even think of running, Buck's no miser."

Buck took out his pistol, armed it, and pointed it at me, "You're dead meat kiddo."

I thought of running, but both because of Gailwings words and also by looking at Buck you could see with his build that he was no slipshot, he had an aim. So I just held my arms out in front of me, even though they wouldn't defend me.

I waited for a loud noise, the pull of the trigger. Though; I heard nothing. Next I heard a 'whoosh' sound, then I saw in a quick motion: a dart (I'm not talking about a Nerf dart, I'm talking about a real: NEEDLE HIT THE DART BOARD AND IT CAN REALLY HURT dart) hit Buck's hand, then he let go of his gun to pull the dart out of his hand and hold his hand.

Buck screamed, he cursed, "Ow! Who in the name of cow pies did that?" He looked around trying to find someone.

I tried to think of one person I knew who could have done that and not be so close and then it hit me. He was on my baseball team, but he still could throw darts like that, one person who always beat me at darts when we played, who had a bunch of dart boards, a guy who could throw with so much accuracy, precision, preciseness, rigor, who had a real arm; Hawk.

Suddenly Hawk jumped out from a roof top (who the heck knows how he was up there) and landed on Buck's body. Buck started getting up and Hawk and him were in a fight.

"Hey you!" I heard a familiar voice growl. I looked over and saw Ashley's dad holding Gailwing (with his left hand) by the chest top of the shirt like a bully did in the movies. He had his right hand free, in a fist. "I'm serving drinks today and right now let's start with some punch!" He punched Gailwing, sending him flying into a wall. "Sorry WINGCUTTER but I don't serve whine and it looks like you already have too much to begin with!"

Then I noticed Farmer. I took a look at him and Ashley's dad and noticed how even though Farmer was so big, Ashley's dad was bigger. Farmer looked more muscular, Raymond was taller.

Farmer took two of the other WINGCUTTERS and fought with them. Beating on them like they were punching bags. Wow Farmer was pounding them with ferousity.

I saw Hawk was taking his time with Buck, who was losing to Hawk. Buck wasn't getting any hits on Hawk, and every time he tried to pick up his gun Hawk would nail Buck on the back.

Then I felt a huge pain in my back as I fell to the ground. I got up and saw the last and fifth WINGCUTTER with his fists up. I was furious. I punched him in the gut. He gagged, I kicked him in the ribs. He aimed about thirteen punches at me and I, ducked, dived, and dodged each one, agitating him in the process. I swung my fist at him, nailing him in the chin. I followed up with an uppercut and finished with a right hook. I backed up and he tried to jab me with a fist and then an elbow. I grabbed the elbow and smashed him on the nose. Suddenly I felt a pain in my knee and shin, I saw that he had kicked me. I clutched my knee for a second and rolled out of the way of being kicked again. I stood up and ducked a jab. I grabbed the fist and threw him over my shoulder. I turned around to see my adversary knocked out on the ground.

I stared at him for a second until I heard Farmer, "Man Atom…I didn know you were tryin' ta kill em'."

I saw that Buck was also knocked out, Gailwing was slung over Ashley's dad's shoulder, and Farmer had the two he had taken slung over his shoulder. Hawk gave Buck to Ashley's dad and I decided to do the same with my enemy.

"Err…Farmer and I will go give these guys to the police station. Hopefully these guys can go in jail." Raymond said laughing.

"Yes Raymond—er, Mr. Zalverik." I said.

Raymond frowned, "Come on Atom, I want you call me Ray from now on."

"Okay." I replied.

He left with Farmer and the five outlaws, leaving me with Hawk.

"How do you throw darts like that I have no idea." I told Hawk.

"Ashley is at my place, you wanna go over?" Hawk delved.

"Sure." Returned abruptly.

Getting to Hawk's place took awhile. Harry didn't even look (let alone greet us) at us from the living room when we came in. Ashley was waiting for us in the kitchen.

She ran over to me and gave me a hug. "You're okay?" She asked me, like it was half rhetorical and half real.

"Of course." I smiled. "I took one out for ya."

She chuckled, "Nice, thanks."

"Okay love birds, let's go do something that doesn't involve looking googlie-eyed at each other." Hawk interrupted, bursting into laughter.

Ashley mock punched him, "Fine."

We went into Hawk's room. He sat in his fancy cushion chair made from hawk feathers. Ashley took herself to sit on Hawk's bed. I just stood instead of sitting.

"Okay, guys, or guy, Atom, and girl, Ashley," Hawk sighed. "I know you told everyone a different story of what had really happened. You know, the one with the first encounter with the WINGCUTTERS, but I wanna know the truth. Don't worry if it's supposed to be a secret, then I won't tell anyone." He made a motion of a zipper on his lips.

I knew he wouldn't give up, and I knew I could trust him. I sat next to Ashley and whispered ever so lightly only she could hear it. "I think we can trust him. You have a say in this, too, ya know."

She put on her thinking face for three seconds and then a smile of relief fell upon it, "Me too, go ahead."

I explained to Hawk about the Warlock Bazaar and Aljerio, including Ashley's shoes and ring, I threw in my bat as well. I told him how it was cursed, but it was going to improve my skill. Hawk was very patient, listening, and never interrupting.

When I was done he cocked his head, "So where are these shoes and this ring?"

Ashley pointed to her shoes and tapped her ring, blushing.

"I might go to this bazaar myself." Hawk added.

"Really, good luck finding it."

During that week I took Hawk to the Bazaar. Aljerio greeted us cheerfully, and Hawk searched all over for something he wanted.

"What do we pay you in?" I asked.

"Anything. You probably have U.S. Dollars though, but that will be accepted." He replied counting some platinum coins.

"Why do you just let us know this world…and don't just say because of the excitement we gave you?" I asked.

Aljerio dropped two coins and picked them up. "I-I…I just haven't had many people come here for a long time. Plus: you seem like trustworthy people."

"I can't find anything!" Hawk screamed as he came around a corner.

"Well how about a black smoker, checkle prink, a nickel bottom." Aljerio put the coins on the desk. "How about a friend pet, zoo world, tame whip. Do you have any interests that could be useful to finding anything?"

Hawk thought, after about a half an hour he answered, "Hawk!"

I didn't understand what the heck he was talking about…then it hit me.

Algerio just guessed at it, "Hawk? Do you mean pet hawk, talking pet hawk?"

Hawk thought for a moment, "I want to be able to transform into a hawk."

"Oh yes, I can get you something like that." Aljerio said. He left to go around a corner to and aisle. Then he came back after about three minutes with a can full of emerald colored dust. Aljerio sprinkled some of the emerald dust on Hawk's head, then on Hawk's arms, some on his torso, and on his legs. He muttered something in some weird language that I couldn't understand.

Hawk's body lit up jade and I heard a 'poof' sound. Hawk's body looked normal again.

"So is that it, can I turn into a hawk or not?" Hawk bellowed.

"Yes, of course you can. However I must teach you how." Aljerio retorted. "Now to transform into a hawk you must think to do it. Same for reforming into a human. Now when you transform into a hawk you will no longer be able to talk like a human. It will only come out as a hawk sound. You will be a bigger hawk, about twice the size of an average hawk. Don't worry about your clothes, they won't rip, and you will reform back to human with the clothes you had on before you transformed into a hawk. Not the average size hawk. Oh and just to make sure that you aren't shot down." He went away and came back with a can full of black dust. "Here." He sprinkled some black dust on every inch of his body. "Now no one will shoot you down, they'll think they're missing. All shots made at you with mortal weaponry will be deflected, two feet, away from your body. Here take this it will give instructions and information on the transformation, your defenses from the, black dust, how to fly, and everything else you need to know about this." He handed Hawk a scroll all rolled up. "All this; the…emerald dust, black dust, and this scroll will be…eight dollars."

"Okay." Hawk said handing over eight dollars.

**Chapter 11: I Hit my Homer**

It was about two weeks later we finally started another game. This time we were against the SCARRED BOBCATS. Only we were the visiting team this time.

We had to forfeit all the other games because we had Tiny out long and Joey took awhile as well because he got the flu right when he was leaving the hospital. We also had to make sure that the WINGCUTTERS didn't show up, so we have an automatic tie if they show up because so far, it's not possible to ensure the WINGCUTTERS aren't coming.

I had brought the 'cursed' bat and was ready to use its power.

Ashley gave me a hug and a kiss for good luck. "Good luck." Then she took her spot in the stands with Ray.

I don't know why, but all this about me being one of the few people who knows about the Warlock's Bazaar and Aljerio had really made me feel like I was already an adult.

I looked at the line-up.

Rightfield-1. Tiny

Left Field-2. Gamma

Catcher-3. Farmer

Short Stop-4. Potato

Centerfield-5. Hawk

First Base-6. Ed

Second Base-7. Winter

Third Base-8. Joey

Pitcher-9. Atom

I scanned it two more times and then I heard the umpire, "Play ball!"

The SCARRED BOBCATS went out.

"Alright Tiny you're up!" My Dad shouted. "Gamma you're on deck! And, Farmer you're on double deck! Go!"

Tiny got ready and walked out and practiced swinging. Gamma and Farmer got ready, but stayed in the bench area.

"Batter-up!" the umpire hollered.

Tiny walked into the batter's box. The pitcher winded up and threw the ball. I saw it, a split-fingered fastball, slightly to the right and a little up, but still in place for a strike.

Tiny had a gleam in his eye as he stepped back a tiny bit (still in the box), and swung, slightly in an uppercut, and sent the ball in a line drive over the first baseman. Tiny ran for first getting they're in a blink, then he ran for second. The right fielder got the ball and threw it in, but Tiny got to second base about half a minute before the second baseman got it.

Gamma stepped up to the plate, while Potato got on double deck. The pitcher spat. He threw in a quick wind-up.

"Ball!" the umpire yelled.

The pitcher got another ball, then a strike, and then Gamma struck a grounder that went to second baseman, and Tiny didn't gain anything, but Gamma made it to first base.

Farmer stepped up to the plate, while Hawk got on double deck.

The pitcher pitched the ball that was obviously a ball.

Tiny took off for third and the catcher threw the ball for third.

"Safe!" the umpire yelled.

The pitcher threw a curveball, which Farmer hit high and deep through the shortstops arms. Tiny scored, Gamma got to second while Farmer got to first. Gamma went for third, but went back to first when he saw the leftfielder running in to throw the ball.

Potato went up and struck out, Gamma tried to steal third but failed, getting another out.

Hawk went up and the pitcher threw two balls. Hawk slammed the next one that went for the centerfield…and…he…caught it, darn!

I got my glove and we all went out to our positions. I practiced pitching with Farmer.

"Batter up!" the umpire yelled.

I saw the batter, short, slender, weakness: inside and low. So I threw a fastball right in his weak spot. Strike! I liked this position, pitching felt like home. I shot a slider that went for the middle and then slid in the batter's weak spot. Strike! I pitcher another fastball outside, but he swung for it.

"Strike three, yer out!" the umpire hollered.

"It's him again." I heard farmer remark, as I recognized his friend with his big build and lefty stance.

I threw a change up, curveball, splitter, which in order got: ball, strike, ball. I threw another change up and he swung. Whakooo!

It went strait for Hawk. I saw him roll, slide, and dive, catching the ball just in perfect style.

"Out!" the umpire yelled, as the big guy yelled in anger. I heard Farmer snicker.

The next one was a walk. The one after that I got two strikes, a ball, and then he grounded. He got to first, while the other one got to third.

I threw a knuckleball, which rose up, causing the batter to swing. Strike! I threw a curveball, which he hit.

The bases were full. I saw the next batter, a short…girl, football like build, and threw a fastball, sort of randomly, without thinking, which she hit.

It went to Gamma, who dropped it, picked it up, and threw it in to Winter. The guy on third scored. Winter threw it to Joey, who tagged the base.

"Out!" the umpire screamed.

Well the score was now: 1 to 1. End of first inning.

So now Ed got up to bat, and Winter got ready to bat.

"Batter-up!" the umpire screamed.

Ed stepped in the batter's box. The pitcher winded-up and threw the ball.

"Ball!" the umpire hollered.

The pitcher winded-up, and fired a heater. I watched as the ball went wizzing towards the plate, just a little of balance, but Ed swung.

"Strike!" the umpire called. I realized that should have been a ball, but Ed had swung, so his loss.

The pitcher tossed three more balls in a row, giving Ed a walk.

Winter stepped-up, the pitcher threw the ball and Winter swung.

"Strike!" the umpire called.

The next two pitches were balls, then another strike. The pitch after that Winter hit into a foul. Then Winter hit the next one to get a single.

After that Joey was up. He was grinning. I watched him as he let two balls go by, and then duck as one almost nailed him in the head. The next one he struck to go down through the first baseman's feet. The bases were now loaded.

Then I realized I was the next one up. I got my helmet on, and slowly picked up the 'cursed' bat and walked to the plate. Pressure built up inside me like I was a fire hose. I saw the first pitch was too low and let it go. The next pitch was right smack in the middle. A big change-up waiting for me to hit it. I swung, and time seemed to move in slow motion as I saw that bat make contact with the ball, and then the ball went flying. I didn't run as soon as I made contact like normal for some reason. I watched as the ball went far over the fence, soon it went diving down and then I decided to run. I ran around the bases not fast, not slowly, but calmly and proudly. I noticed that I had hit a grand slam! I heard the crowd cheering! I heard my teammates, including the runners! Even some of the other teams players started cheering! Then I reached home plate. I was surrounded by teammates as Farmer and Gamma lifted me on their shoulders and they were chanted my name! Oh heck, and this was only the second inning!

Then something white in the air I saw caught my eye, heading towards me, the baseball! I thought of who could've thrown it, I looked around and saw who obviously threw it, I was about to scream hit name, but the ball was too close! I was about to try to get down and move, but I was already too late…

**Chapter 12: Extermination**

Author's Note: this chapter will be written from Hawk's point of view.

'Wow!' I thought to myself. I couldn't believe it; Atom had hit a home run, no not a just a home run, it was a grand slam. It was only the second inning, and everybody was crazy.

Then I saw a the ball flying threw the air back into the field. It swiftly dived down, and hit Atom, hard. He fell down and knocked out. I got angry, I looked in the direction from which it was probably thrown and then saw who it must've been.

"WINGCUTTER!" I screamed, pointing at Shadow. 'Come on!' I thought, we just had a good game going. Next thing I saw was a bunch of WINGCUTTERS crowding around Shadow. I could make out Turk, Fly, Buck, and Gailwing as well. How the heck did those two get out of jail?

"You've pushed us this far!" Shadow shouted. "Now I've brought every WINGCUTTER here, and you've got yourself a war! You're outnumbered, so don't plan on any winning this war, no piece treaty either!" I looked and saw countless numbers of them, he was right, we were highly outnumbered.

Of course the smartest person on our team had to figure it out. "They've got eighty two WINGCUTTERS in total!" Tiny blasted.

I started to notice that a lot of people had decided to scatter.

It was then I knew that the only way to end this was to either throw all the WINGCUTTERS in jail, or to eliminate all of them. Everyone on the team, even the girls thought the same, I could tell. I saw Ashley and Ray walk over to us as well.

"Shadow's yours, Hawk." Joey told me.

"I call Fly!" Tiny called.

"Turk is all mine." Farmer said flexing his muscles.

"Gailwing is definitely gonna be totally my property." Ray said cracking his knuckles.

"I guess I'll take Buck." Gamma said.

Everyone started picking his or her enemies.

"Shadow, can I please just bomb the place now." A young boy with short dirty blonde hair and a red bandana around his head said.

"No! Now stop pestering me Fickle." Shadow answered harshly. Fickle cursed.

"I'll protect Atom." Ashley whispered.

"I've changed my mind, I'm gonna help my daughter—and take out Gailwing." Ray whispered, loudly.

"I'll make this quick, short, sweet, and simple…" Shadow calmly stated. "you're all dead where you stand!"

Farmer couldn't help returning, "Oh yeah, ya'l a bun' of punchin' bags! I'll flaten' ya'l righ' now! Bring it! Die! Die ya stupi' excuse for a gang!"

"That's it, you've just sealed your fate." Shadow smirked.

"Yeah that we're all gonna kick your butts." Gamma laughed. Shadow raised his left arm and threw what looked like a football, which exploded and showered everyone in confetti. Apparently that was the signal because all the WINGCUTTERS rushed at us.

I took off for Shadow, seeing everyone else beating on the WINGCUTTERS. As I got closer to him, his smile got even bigger. When I got up to him (which was far behind everyone else) and I was ready to pound him he ducked and stabbed me with a fist in a lower gut position that when you get hit there it feels like you just threw up your entire amount of meals you've eaten in your entire life.

I fell to my knees and tried to punch him, but he just jumped back.

"You pathetic fool. You thought you could beat me before but it won't come to be I tell you." he told me as if giving me a lecture.

Then I had an idea, so what if it would freak Shadow out.

Before I did that, he pinned me down and whispered in my ear, "Before you die I will tell you this: I am Warlock." Then he stood up and his right hand glowed black with claws. "Death to you Thomas Hawkinson!"

"Not a chance!" I shouted and I closed my eyes, and transformed into a hawk, it had become so easy, so fast to do it. I flapped my wings and just missed being cut to shreds.

"So, you can transform." Shadow examined. "I can't do that and I'm a Warlock, but you can do it and you're just a mortal. No matter, I shall still tear you to shreds."

I let out a shriek sound that hawks make at him and flew high into the air. I dived down and attempted to claw him up, but instead had to avoid his claws. So I went back up and shrieked again. I circled around and swooped down. As I came to him I scraped him on his shoulder, circled around him swiftly, and scraped the other shoulder.

"Awww!" Shadow howled in pain. "You blasted bird." He cursed at me as I flew back up. Apparently he couldn't hit a flying target.

I kept going higher and higher, and then swooped down, shrieking loudly. I cam to him and dug my claws into his shoulders. I tried to lift him and only got him about two meters off the ground, flapping vigorously, and then he slashed a scratch at my…feet and I felt a sharp pain. I let him go, shrieking in pain, and he fell on his butt. When I flew up I saw a lot of blood coming from his shoulders. So this time I swooped in scratched up his back and he almost took off my left wing. As I came around again he ducked at my attempt to get at his chest. He wouldn't stay conscious much longer, he was losing too much blood.

"You can't kill me as a pitiful loon, let alone a human." Shadow mocked.

This time I came down picked him up again. I flapped as hard as possible, every time he took a slash at me I would claw the ear on that arm's side, causing him to hold his ear instead. When we were about ten feet up I let go. He fell down on his back and didn't get up. I landed and walked over to him. His hand had stopped glowing and he was obviously unconscious. I shrieked in victory and flew off toward the rest of the fight to help.

As I was flying back I was seeing that it appeared we were winning. Occasionally I would swoop down and slash a WINGCUTTER, but I was heading for Atom.

About five minutes from where Atom was left I heard an explosion, a loud one. I saw the entire baseball field was erupted in flames. I rushed my flight as fast as possible. Hoping to get there and find out that Atom wasn't dead, he could be handicapped, but no, he couldn't be dead.

When I flew down and landed in front of the baseball field there were fire trucks everywhere and police cars, ambulances. I saw that if Atom had been left here he was dead. I stared at the fire. I would've changed back if there weren't so many witnesses.

Ray walked over. "Are you hawk."

I did my best to nod and shriek.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ray said. "Ashley took Atom to the hospital about a half hour before the explosion." I wondered is Ashley had told him, and as if he was reading my mind, he nodded. "Yes she did."

I shrieked and flew off to the hospital.

**Chapter 13: Stages**

Author's Note: this chapter and the rest shall be by Atom's point of view again.

I woke up in the hospital seeing Ashley and the same nurse again, creepy.

I decided to read the name tag: Acura.

When Ashley saw me conscious again she cried and hugged me and before she kissed me Acura said, "I wouldn't do that, his condition would not do well."

"Sorry." she said.

My voice sounded hoarse, "W-what happened?"

"Oh, you probably wouldn't remember." she cooned. "You hit a grand slam. The WINGCUTTERS knocked you out and we fought. Aljerio eventually joined in. Oh, by the way Shadow is a War-, er, half Warlock. Anyway he joined in and a bomb went off but we brought you here. Now all the WINGCUTTERS are in prison and the BOBCATS field has been reduced to charrs and ashes. It has been about a week or so."

In about another few days I was out and Aljerio had called Ashley, Hawk, and me to his Bazaar.

"This is serious." He told me. "The bat works its disasters in stages, the fight is the first, the bomb was the second, something bad is about to happen."

"How do we stop it." I asked.

"The only way is to destroy it." He answered

Hawk laughed, "Then burn it, blow it up, smash it with a hammer, bury it."

"I already tried that." he answered.

"Then what do we do." I asked

"I'll figure it out. Now go do life until something happens." Aljerio answered. Some Warlock.

Well we left and I knew we didn't have long.

'Man…' I thought. 'this magic and supernatural stuff was messing with my normal life, and my baseball life.'

**Chapter 14: Metallic Infection**

We came back to the Bazaar when Ashley's skin turned green and her temperature reached 110˚F, plus she couldn't regain conscious at all. I knew that taking her to a hospital would not be an option. The questions about how she was surviving at that temperature and being green without chloroplast would occur. So we (Hawk and I) took her to the Bazaar.

"Oh my goodness." Aljerio said.

"Can you treat this." I asked desperately.

"Yes, but it won't go away, I can only keep her alive, and only for two days." He said changing the OPEN sign to CLOSED.

"How do we stop it?" I asked. Now I knew why he didn't want me to have it. If she died, I could never truthfully live again. "How? How Aljerio? How?"

He walked over to the counter and pulled out a paper and walked back over to me. He snapped his fingers and Ashley disappeared and reappeared on a bed that I realized had taken place of where that bat had been.

"There is only one way, destroy it." He told us. "And to do that you must find the last descendant of the builder of the bat. That Warlock MAY have information on how to destroy it, if she doesn't…you're doomed, and so is Ashley over there."

"Who is this Warlock." Hawk asked.

"I don't know but he or she is right in the hospital." He said. He took out a device that looked like a little computer mouse with two green ringed antennae. "This will blink when you get close to him or her and when you get so close your right next to him or her it will blink and beep repeatedly, fast."

"Okay." I cried taking it. "Come on Hawk." I took one last look at the Ashley. "Goodbye Ashley. Dang I wish I never took that dang bat."

**Chapter 15: Finding a Cure**

We got to the hospital hastily and I took out the little device I decided to nickname 'Mouse.' I walked threw the entire lobby.

We gave up after we went through the lobby twelve times. So we went through a ton of floors and eventually Mouse started blinking. I got to the INJURED floor and I stepped carefully watching Mouse's blinks go faster and slower. I turned a corner and all of a sudden Mouse started beeping a lot and following with the blinking. I looked up and saw the person I least expected to see. Standing right in front of me was Acura the nurse lady.

"Acura! You…" I said speechless.

"Excuse me, what is that blinking and beeping contraption of yours?" She asked rhetorically as though she already knew the answer "Acura?" I asked looking around to make sure no one besides Hawk could hear.

"Yes." She looked at me with a weird expression. That made her look seven years younger.

I lowered my voice to a whisper, "A-are you a, are you a, ya'know, a Warlock?"

Acura frowned and looked around. She took out a cube. It got bigger and swallowed them, and all of a sudden they were in a nice room that had all this stuff on shelves like Aljerio's only not for sale. "How did you know that?"

"So you are a Warlock." I asked hopeful.

"Yes, but how'd you get that and how'd you find out?"

I put Mouse down, "Aljerio—"

"Oh not again," she wined. "is he still pestering me about owing him a Glarbolt."

"No." I asked, not having a clue what she was talking about.

"Oh, well what is it." Acura asked.

Hawk answered the question with two simple words, "The bat."

Acura's eyes went wide, and I could tell she understood. She was thinking, terrible was written across her face. "Stage? What happened?"

"Aljerio says stage three, and my girlfriend, Ashley, is green, has a temperature of 110˚F, and she won't wake up." I answered crying.

"This is bad, very, very bad." she kept muttering things like 'stupid' and 'curses.'

"Look lady, er, Acura, Aljerio told us that you…MIGHT know how to destroy it, how to end this. So how to destroy this thing please." Hawk said holding out the bat like it had been skunked.

Her face turned blank. She closed her eyes, her body tilted as if in a trance. I was about to catch her, but she caught herself. Then her eyes opened.

"There's only one way." Acura explained. "Mt. Vesuvius, when it erupted its plinean eruption on Pompeii, the bat had been created inside of it, accidentally of course, by my granddad who now is dead."

"How long can Warlocks live?" Hawk asked.

"We're not immortal, but we do live for about a millennia." she answered. "Anyway the bat was created inside the volcano, it was cursed inside the volcano, I'm pretty sure it can be destroyed by being thrown into Mt. Vesuvius."

"Like Lord of the Rings." Hawk said.

"Yeah, I guess so." she answered. "Only the bat will probably try to stop you from destroying it by summoning monsters." She took a long stick with a blade and a hook at the end. She handed it to me. "Here take this Gisarme and you will bring the bat to throw it in. Hawk you should be good."

"Oh so now you know their names." I mocked.

She laughed, "Shut-it." She threw the cube and then we were all on a mountain, obviously Mt. Vesuvius.

**Chapter 16: Execute Destruction for Cure**

I started to wonder why she couldn't just take us to the top using her cube.

So I asked her, "Why can't we just use that cube thing and be at the top? That would be a lot easier."

Acura sighed, "The bat prevents it."

So we started our climb. This climb was reminding me of those mountain hikers in movies with a stick and hiking gear and when they get to the top they blow this big horn.

Then Hawk had an idea, "Why don't I just fly it to the top, drop it in, and boom, solve our problem?"

"Why don't you try?" Acura hissed.

Hawk transformed into a hawk. He flew over to me and took the bat. He shrieked as he flew up. He started to fly forward when he fell down and shrieked in pain. I took the bat back as he reformed into a human.

"See," Acura explained. "The bat won't let you fly it, you can fly, but not with the bat. Now will you just trust me and do this the way I've told you."

"Fine." Hawk and I agreed.

We began our climb (well Hawk was a hawk and was flying instead of climbing) nicely and then when we were about half way up a green elf like creature with dark eyes and slightly green colored skin, but not like Ashley's, appeared out of the ground.

"You have the bat." it said. "You plan on destroying it. You are a fool. The bat will summon many other creatures." I realized that this creature spoke every 'oo' as in boo sound with emphasis, for example; fool was fooooool.

"Eclives. That's his name." Acura whispered. "He's half elf, half gnome. No not like lawn gnome. He was here when the bat was cursed, there are very few like him, but his kind can live longer than a Warlock, that is if he doesn't use magic to affect his aging."

"Yes I was." Eclives. "I wish I could have stopped it."

"You could help us now you know, Eclives, or you can step aside." Acura hissed.

"That is foolish," Eclives retorted. "but I guess I could help." He stuck his hand in the ground and pulled out a greenish, mossy, lance. "I would be happy to see that bat destroyed."

Hawk shrieked, and I could tell what the message was, 'let's move along.'

It didn't take long. A half hour later our first monster showed up. A wild bear. Well that wasn't as hard since it ran off.

Then a little later we found a large troll.

"Troll!" Acura screamed. It was about as big as my house and it was carrying a club the size of a full sized van.

It grunted and Hawk kept distracting it by diving in and out causing it to keep swinging the club in the air.

Eclives stabbed his lance into the troll's leg, but it didn't feel a thing. The troll just scratched its foot and kicked Eclives back. I couldn't get close to it and the long gisarme's range didn't help.

Acura threw some pink dust at the troll and then she whispered something. Boom! An explosion where the dust had been. The troll tumbled over and fell on his back.

Eclives climbed up on to the troll's head and stabbed his brain. A weird blue liquid fell out.

"The troll is dead. The troll is dead." Eclives repeated. "And there is worse to come."

Later on we met three trolls and it took forever for me to kill one, then Acura finally killed the other, and with Hawk's help Eclives killed the third.

A rumbling erupted and I knew that it wasn't the volcano erupting.

"Something is approaching us." Eclives snapped.

"Yes, something worse." Acura added.

"Something worse than trolls, I don't wanna know, but I guess I have to." I said. Just then giant green, mossy cockroach like bugs crawled toward us. Tons of them, each about the size of Eclives. "Acura, any magic spells?"

"Hold on, I'm thinking." She answered. "The bat is preventing me from using my core magic, I could be shooting flames through my arms right now if it wasn't for the bat."

Eclives jumped back. I kept killing them as fast as I could. Even Hawk was killing them. But those bug things just kept coming.

Acura took out a potion jar filled with white. She threw it at one of the bugs. The bug turned red and it started attacking the other bugs. I grew in size by doubling about four times. The numbers of the bugs declined, fast. In about three minutes all of them were gone.

Then there were seven harpies that attacked us.

"Harpies, harpies, harpies." Eclives repeated. He jumped on one. "I've got date with you." He stabbed her back, jumped off, landed on the ground, and she died as she fell to the ground.

Hawk took two harpies out easily by scraping them up. Acura was hopelessly throwing weird green balls at them, missing completely. I jumped up and hooked onto one of the harpies arms. I climbed up and cut her wings. When we hit ground I cut her up as fast as possible. So that left three two go.

One of the harpies had Hawk in her clutches. She was going to eat him. Then I noticed that Acura had missed on purpose. The green balls erupted green vines that snatched up both harpies and squeezed them to death. Hawk had been let go of.

A tree walked up to us.

"A Trent." Eclives told me. "Burn it." That didn't take long. I set him on fire and that ended that problem.

After so many more of monsters to battle I felt like Percy Jackson. But the last trouble was waiting for me at the top. In the volcano was big, lava golem emerging out from the lava. It launched its lava rocks at us.

"Throw the bat in. Hawk and I'll distract it." Acura ordered.

They distracted the golem, but as I went to the edge to throw it in, a powerful force urged me not to. The bat was preventing my body from throwing it in. Man this was like Lord of the Rings.

"I shall get it in the volcano, the cursed, stupid, terrible, unlovable, awful bat!" Eclives shouted. He ran to me snapped the bat from my hands and dived into the volcano.

"Eclives!" I shouted, I had barely known this guy, but he had helped us and he shouldn't die like this.

"Don't worry, I shall be at peace, to know the bat is gone forever." Eclives shouted peacefully, I saw a smile on his face. "Goodbye, Adam Dalabreak." Then he and the bat were incinerated as they touched the lava.

The lava golem rumbled, it disassembled itself and blew up. Finally, that bat would never curse anyone.

**Chapter 17: Absolute and Temporary Awards**

Ashley had come back to normal when we (Hawk, Acura, and I) were back.

"Oh, Atom!" Ashley cried as she hugged me and kissed me. "It's gone, the bat. The curse was terrible."

"Hey if Acura knew you then how could you not know her Aljerio?" Hawk asked.

"There are many Warlocks in the hospital." Aljerio replied. "And I know them all, but I never bothered to ask if they were descendants of the creator of the bat. Now I will give Hawk, Acura, an Atom rewards for destroying the bat. Acura I will give you whatever I owe you after this conversation is over. Hawk you will get this giant trophy." He pulled out a gold trophy the size of Hawk and it looked exactly like him with a hawk on his arm. The words on the bottom read: HAWK."

"Awesome." Hawk commented.

Aljerio sprinkled dust on him and gave him a paper, "Now if you concentrate you can make your wings steel and cut threw objects."

"Awesome!" Hawk repeated.

Aljerio looked at me, "Atom you can pick your prize."

Then an idea occurred to me, "Make me a Warlock."

"I can do that." Aljerio grinned. "But not today. I will later on, when you're ready. Not now. Pick something else."

I looked around and found two red jewel bracelets that had signs that read: THE TWO THAT SHARE THESE WILL HAVE GREAT LOVE WITH EACH OTHER FOR ALL ETERNITY AND GET THROUGH EVERY FIGHT.

I gave one to Ashley, kept one, and that seals the love.

"I will change you, just not now." Aljerio told me.

"You know what I wonder?" I asked. "Why would a Warlock play baseball?"

Aljerio retorted curiously, "Why did the vampires in the Twilight Saga play baseball?"

**Chapter 18: Pure Game**

Ten days later we finally had our next game, and in specifics, our decided last game of the season. We were home team, and we were against the BLACK NOVA. This team we hadn't gotten to play against yet, but it had been going undefeated.

When everyone arrived to the game I looked into the stands. I saw many familiar faces. I saw Aljerio and Acura sitting next to each other, but in a disguise, obviously a lot of people would wonder why a nurse was here and who this old guy was. I saw Ashley and Ray grinning at me. I saw that guy in the hospital I had met who was speaking gibberish for a little bit. Now that was getting a little creepy.

Nick happily announced himself clearly, "HELLO! It's finally the last game of the season. The SPACE METEORS…vs.…the BLACK NOVAS! The BLACK NOVAS have been going undefeated so far, unlike the SPACE METEORS will my team win? Where is my corn dog? Oh there it is. Anyway so far the WINGCUTTERS have been giving us huge numbers of problems, but now they're all in jail thanks to the SPACE METEORS! And the police and a few other people. I would like to thank my team for doing this. Now go and win SPACE METEOR! Hey I just noticed both teams have something to do with space."

The crowds went cheering. I honestly thought that was the best speech I'd ever heard Nick say.

My dad decided to give us a spiritful speech as well, "Okay I know we've lost so far a lot, but remember what Atom had done before." A lump rose in my gut. "Well if Atom, who couldn't really hit, he hit a GRAND SLAM! If he can do that then we can beat those BLACK NOVAS! We got a GRAND SLAM! We conquered the WINGCUTTERS! We are an awesome team! Now let's get out there and win this game!"

Then the whole team screamed and cheered and I knew we were ready.

"That was excellent Dad." I told him when everyone calmed down a little. This time I took a quick look at the line-up.

First Base-1. Winter

Leftfield-2. Vivi

Catcher-3. Ed

Third Base-4. Joey

Rightfield-5. Tiny

Centerfield-6. Hawk

Second Base-7. Farmer

Pitcher-8. Potato

Short-Stop-9. Atom

I looked it over twice before my dad started yelling positions at us. Jessy and Gamma took seats on the bench while everyone else went out on the field.

"Batter-up!" the umpire yelled.

Potato threw two strikes before the ball was hit. It went right to first base and the batter made it to first just in time.

Potato walked the next batter and the one after that struck out. Next a tall lanky player who looked like he could win the 'Tallest Guy in the World' award, over Raymond Zalverik.

Potato must've noticed his weakness as I did. She threw to fastballs low and away. He got two strikes. And as she threw her potato ball I knew he was out. Then I saw the look in his eye and I saw him swing just in slow motion, uppercut it…Bang! The sound was like a gunshot, I looked around for a second expecting the WINGCUTTERS, Buck with his gun, or some lightning. This the wasn't Twilight saga, so no vampires either. I found nothing and I watched as the ball soared high over everyone's head and got a ground rule double. That gave them one run.

"Whoa," Nick screamed. "just in case you didn't know that lanky dude who just hit is BLACK NOVA's star hitter, Demetri Blake."

The next batter struck out and the next one got a walk. The one after that hit a grounder that went to me. I got it and tagged the Demetri. The guy on third scored though right before that, though.

"The pitcher for the BLACK NOVA team is Allen Garris." Nick announced.

I heard that name before.

Winter walked up to the plate. The pitcher's pitches were like bullets that left smoke behind them, if you blinked at all you would miss it. Winter, Vivi, and Ed struck out right off the bat. I saw Aljerio try to make the last ball pitched to Ed a strike but Acura stopped him. I desperately wanted to pitch next because good pitchers fire me up.

"Well that was so quick I went to go buy another corn dog, and when I came back the first inning was already over." Nick said stunned. "Score: 0-2"

I sighed as we all went out to our positions.

A memory caught my mind, all of BLACK NOVA'S pitcher's are three 16 year old triplets, and I looked at the BLACK NOVA's dugout. I saw the girl who was big and tall, Kiesha Garris, a roundish man, Pablo Garris, and of course there was Allen Garris. Allen was the starter pitcher, Pablo was the mid-game pitcher, and Kiesha

was, like me (only I occasionally do early pitching), a closer.

"Atom!" Ashley screamed. "Atom, head in the game!"

A crack and the ball was in centerfield Hawk dove brilliantly and caught the ball in perfect style.

"Nice play by my team's centerfielder!" Nick cheered.

The next batter walked to first and for some apparent reason tried to steal second but was tagged by Winter before he took three steps.

Potato walked the next batter. The one after that swung at the first two pitches and then let two go by, 2-2. Potato wrapped this up with a potato ball but the batter did the last thing every body expected, bunted the ball.

The bat seemed to make-out with the ball for five seconds before it rolled strait to Potato. For some reason the sudden bunt froze her and I ran up to take it and threw it to third to hold both runners back.

Potato kind of was still stiff so she threw the first pitch way over Ed's head. When Ed finally got the ball the runner on second had stolen third. Potato's second pitch was smoother, but not enough, it went up and to (my) left. Ed got it but let the runner on first steal second.

Potato ending up walking that batter and then Demetri was up.

Potato didn't want to take any chances of letting Demetri hit anything while the bases were loaded so she walked him. Giving up one run, when we could be giving up four if she had taken the chance.

Potato got a break when the next batter, an eager batter, swung at her first three pitches.

We all ran in.

Joey challenged Allen and grounded a single. Tiny followed suit with Joey. Hawk slammed one into left field that loaded the bases. Farmer struck out. Potato hit one that rolled and surprisingly jumped over the short-stop's head. Giving us a run. Allen was talked to and then I stepped up to the plate. Unfortunately they shut us down and when I hit a ball into the first baseman's glove and he made a double play by getting Potato out as well.

Nick whined, "Second inning ends with the score: 3-1."

The third inning was ended with both sides getting three strike outs in a row.

I looked over at the new line-up which was gonna start for when we bat at…Jessy, oh boy.

First Base-1. Winter

Leftfield-2. Gamma

Catcher-3. Vivi

Third Base-4. Jessy

Rightfield-5. Tiny

Centerfield-6. Hawk

Second Base-7. Farmer

Pitcher-8. Ed

Short-Stop-9. Atom

We went to our positions.

Ed is the type of pitcher who only throws fastballs, and an occasional change-up. His fastballs are fast, but not blazing fast.

"Batter-up!" The umpire shouted.

Ed fired to balls in a row on the first batter, and then threw one that went outside and the batter tried to swing at, hit, and got a foul. Ed took his wind-up and pitched. The ball hit the batter, giving up a walk.

Ed walked the next one, only by four balls instead of hitting the batter.

The next batter was tired of seeing walks and balls so he swung to early and struck out.

Ed was pumped. He threw two strikes, but then his third pitch was over Vivi's head.

The runner on second was off, he stole third, but the runner on first wasn't paying attention and just stayed on first base.

Ed threw a strike and then he took a chance and threw the ball to Farmer as the runner on first tried to steal second. He got out, but the runner on third went for home. Farmer threw the ball to Vivi.

"Oi!" The umpire shouted. Which meant 'out' as we all went to the dugout.

Jessy got a grounder on the first pitch that went about two feet in front of their pitcher, Pablo. He didn't get the ball in time and Jessy singled. Tiny got walked.

Hawk struck out because Pablo kept making Hawk eager.

Farmer hit a ball into right field and I saw Demetri, their right fielder, kind of slither over and catch the ball. Ed hit a ball that went into a line drive into leftfield over the leftfielder's head and Jessy scored, Tiny sped around the bases and scored. Ed got out at third.

"Well now the score at the end of the fourth inning is tied: 3-3." Nick boomed.

Ed got lucky in the fifth inning and the first three batters hit pop-up outs.

I struck out. Winter was struck out by Pablo's change-up. Gamma got to first. Vivi hit a pop-up that the catcher couldn't see so he just stook his glove out and the ball popped in his glove.

The sixth inning for Ed went great in the beginning. He struck out the first batter. The next batter was hit by a fastball and was walked, and he stole second and third and scored when the next batter hit a decoy ground out ball to Winter.

Demetri was now up and Ed was too competitive to walk him so he threw a fastball. Cling! The ball went soaring over the fence giving them a homerun and another run.

The next batter singled, but he failed to steal second and that ended the top of the sixth.

They got three easy strike outs by Jessy, Tiny, and Hawk.

"The sixth inning ends with the score: 3-5." Nick whined.

I took a look at the new line-up and smiled, I was pitching.

First Base-1. Winter

Leftfield-2. Gamma

Catcher-3. Vivi

Third Base-4. Jessy

Rightfield-5. Tiny

Centerfield-6. Hawk

Second Base-7. Farmer

Pitcher-8. Atom

Short-Stop-9. Potato

I ran to my home: the pitcher's mound. Now I have a really fast fastball that goes about eighty-five mph, but I don't use it much. I know every pitch and I like to mix it up to make the batter's keep guessing. I also have a huge amount of stamina. Most pitchers are good from thirty to ninety pitches, but somehow I can pitch three strait games, all nine innings, if my dad let me.

A young righty batter stepped up to the plate. I saw how he shrunk his strike zone, but he had a weakness if it went outside. I pitched a change-up, right on the edge of his strike zone. He swung and grounded out.

The next batter I threw two split-fingered fastballs at him, which had him swinging at the ground, getting two strikes. Then I threw my fastball right down the middle and he just watched it sail by.

"Hoo!" The umpire called as he signaled a strikeout.

For the next batter I threw another split-fingered fastball. He connected when it started to dip and sent it into centerfield.

Hawk went forward and the ball dived. It landed right in front of him. He sat there stunned for a second, then picked it up and threw it to Potato who threw it to Farmer on second base.

"Fas!" The umpire called, safe.

The runner on second tried to steal third when I threw a way outside ball but Vivi was ready for it. She threw back to me and I ran right in front of the runner and tagged him out.

"My team completes the first half of the seventh inning without giving up a single run thanks to Adam Dalabreak." Nick emitted.

"Farmer you're up!" Winter yelled.

Farmer went up to bat against Kiesha, who was no easy-hit-off-of pitcher. She only used her fastball, which looked like it came from the leftfielder, and her change-up which always looked like it was going to the middle even if it wasn't. She also had a heater that she only used when the count was full, I learned this because I was listening in on her brothers' conversation.

Farmer took two balls and then hit a power bomb over the fence giving us another run: 4-5.

I realized I was up and I struck out. Potato hit a pop-fly that went up and made the catcher and Kiesha collide, and Potato got on second before Kiesha could get the ball.

Winter hit a single that got Potato on third. Gamma did the same. The inning ended when Vivi hit a line drive into the first baseman's glove and she tagged the base to make a double play.

"Well that ends the seventh inning with the score: 4-5." Nick moaned.

The eighth inning was a power house inning.

In the beginning of the top of the eighth I was to eager to get my team back in the dug-out. I walked two batters and the next one got a single. The batter after that hit a double and after that got a single. The bases were loaded and Demetri was up. He watched a few balls and strikes go by and then hit a grand slam. Making the score: 4-11.

Then I finally calmed down and blasted the next batter with three strikes by my fastball.

The batter after that I used a change-up and a slider and he swung at both of them, getting two fouls. Then he hit a ball up into foul territory, but Jessy just barely caught it for the second out.

Then the next batter just wouldn't swing at anything and somehow got full count. I pitched a slider and he swung too late because it had already slid over to the side.

Then our side of the power house inning came. Jessy got two strikes from Kiesha but got a ball, and then singled. Tiny bunted and he easily got to first base, but Jessy slid into second and the umpire had to make the call.

"Fas!" The umpire shouted.

Hawk slammed a ground rule double giving us a run. Farmer crashed a home run giving us three more runs. I was walked. Potato fake bunted twice to get me to successfully steal second and third and grounded a ball to third baseman so I couldn't go. Winter hit a line drive that I could hear the 'wizz' sound coming from it as it sailed into right field and hit the fence and then the ground, I got in to get us another run, Potato was on third and Winter on second. Gamma doubled as well only with a whammed pop-fly which was more like a dive bomb, getting Winter on third and Gamma on second, and giving us another run. Vivi struck out. Jessy let two pitches go by which let Winter score and Gamma get on third. Then Jessy hit a line drive which went to Demetri in centerfield. He caught it and sent it into the second baseman's glove while he was in mid-air. Gamma forgot to tag-up so by the time he got to third he was out, for the ending double play.

"Well the eighth inning ends with a tie 11-11." Nick spoke with interest. "The ninth inning will decide it all!"

The top of the first inning went well.

I threw a split-fingered fastball at the first batter…Ting! He grounded out on a simple hit.

The next batter I decided to throw a knuckleball, which basically is throwing at random because it can do anything. So I threw it and it whirled right into the guy's head, giving him a walk. That made me edgy.

I pitched a change up and the batter swung at it and sent a line drive that turned into a speedy ground ball right to Tiny's glove, and he threw the ball to Farmer and he threw it to Potato and she tagged the base.

"Ow!" The umpire shouted.

Then Demetri was up. I knew I had to be careful. I decided to throw a fastball first bandit wizzed with firepower right passed him.

"Hugh!" The umpire announced.

I threw a change-up this time, but Demetri didn't swing.

"Eet!" The umpire called.

I threw a split-fingered fastball this time.

"Eet!" The umpire called again.

I threw curveball that really had a curve on it. He swung this, too early.

"Hugh!" The umpire wailed.

I tried a slider, up high.

"Eet!" The umpire called.

Now he had full count. I decided to throw a knuckleball. I winded up and pitched. The ball went as in a line up and the dived. Crack!

The ball went in a line drive that was so close to the ground I thought it was gliding or floating right over the grass. It went straight to centerfield with Hawk. He put his glove down ready to get it. Then it did something that no one had expected. It soared slowly up and over Hawk and over the fence for a home run.

Nick was going insane, "Whoa, Demetri hit the ball in a huge line drive to Thomas Hawkinson. Then the ball went over him like ignore the dude."

The next batter I decided to just kill the inning. I threw my three fastest fastballs and they struck out the batter; one, two, three.

"Strikeout by Adam Dalabreak." Nick boomed. "Now the score is 11-12, who will win? My team only needs two runs to win, and one to go into extra innings."

Tiny was up first for the bottom of the ninth inning. He got two balls and then bunted a foul, next he hit a grounder between the Kiesha's legs. He got on first.

Hawk fake bunted and let Tiny steal second, then he hit a sail-drive on the third base foul line, still in play. Hawk got to second and Tiny just made it to third.

Farmer hit a pop-up that Kiesha caught and sent to third base.

"Ow!" The umpire called, now Tiny was out and Farmer too.

"Double play by Kiesha Garris." Nick whined.

I took my bat and helmet. I started to walk to the plate when Tiny stopped me.

"Try this." He said panting as he switched my grip on the bat. I didn't understand at first, but then I got it and nodded.

"Okay." I replied. I had always thought as a righty thrower I would bat righty as well. When I batted lefty for the first time, now, I felt strengthened, not held back. I practiced my swing and felt like letting loose an old beast. So I had been a lefty hitter, and a righty thrower all along, like Tiny, but not lefty thrower.

I stepped up to the plate. Kiesha pitched three balls outside to try and get me swinging, but I wasn't the same anymore. Then she threw a fastball, and I swung for it.

"Hugh!" The umpire called.

Again she did the same thing and I missed as I swung. Then she blasted a ball in the middle for me. I swung with more power than ever before. The ball went about a quarter mile high and then landed about a hundred feet over and from the fence.

We heard a lot of coughing and finally Nick talked, "Ya! Dudes and dudets. Adam Dalabreak has hit a homer and that pulls the score to 13-12. The SPACE METEORS win!"

Everyone cheered, or clapped, or both. Even the BLACK NOVAS. I ran around the bases. When I reached home plate I was surrounded by everyone; my team, family, friends, random people, the other team, you get it.

First a bunch of random people were talking to me.

"Nice homer."

"You're awesome."

"Great pitching."

"You're a great player kid."

"You're an awesome pitcher."

"How'd you do that."

Demetri started speaking to me, "Thanks for a great game!"

Then other people started talking.

"Thanks for the push, lefty." Hawk laughed.

"You did great." My dad and Harry simultaneously.

"I almost used my magic." Aljerio chuckled

"But I stopped him." Acura boasted.

"Awesome hit there little brother." Resios teased.

My mom gave me a big, squeezing hug. "You pitched well tonight."

Tiny, "You pitched a commendable game, and you hit a dignified hit."

I stared at him.

Tiny laughed, "Shut-up. Give a smart guy a break."

"Ashley will be here in a second, but great hit there slugger." Raymond complimented.

"Awesome!" Nick shouted. "Here is Ocean Avenue! Don't worry I paid the fee." Then Nick somehow got Ocean Avenue (the song) to play through the microphone.

"You know what Atom?" Hawk announced. "I've got a new name for you. No longer Atom, but now Atom Bomb."

Ashley got to me, "Then give me a hug Atom Bomb."

Coming soon:

• Warlock's Bazaar

The New Team/member

-It's fall and fallball has started, but it's not normal. When a new team comes in mysteriously and becomes one of the top teams and it all seems normal until the SPACE METEORS play against them, there's something weird about this team. And what else, a new team member (who happens to be Demetri from the BLACK NOVAS who were defeated by the SPACE METEORS in the summer baseball season) to the SPACE METEORS comes along, and he just happens to show up the same time this new team shows up. This book shows that a normal baseball life for Adam and his friends isn't going to be for them just yet.

• Warlock's Bazaar

The Mentality Diviner

-It's winter, so it can be a simple winter right…wrong! Something's happening to Adam and his friends, even Hawk and Tiny, they are fighting with each other, things are falling apart, winter baseball season is being cancelled due to it. Ashley even is starting to have trouble having fun with Adam. It's up to Adam; who is now a new Warlock, Ashley, Hawk, Tiny, Aljerio, and Acura to stop this mysterious man who talks about his divine mind, mentality control, and a perfect world created through him.

Coming Later:

• Warlock's Bazaar Season #2 Books

_Dedicated to my family, friends, teachers, and many more._

First one: Warlocks Bazaar

Merlin's Apprentice

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